Oltre House

We walked around barefoot for about 15 minutes, and our socks came away black with dirt and hair. The house clearly hadn’t been properly cleaned before our self check-in. There were dried splashes on the parquet between the kitchen and sofa, plus crumbs, white dog hair, and dust in the corners and under the furniture. The sofas didn’t match the photos, and were modest ones without covers that could be changed between guests. Dust had settled throughout the house, including on frames, seals, curtains, and objects. The musty smell was made worse by strong spicy diffusers in every room. I could still smell them in my hair after getting home. The kitchen was the worst. There was grime around the burner bases, slugs, and crumbs in a rusty fruit bowl. The placemats were dusty, and greasy fingerprints covered the cabinets and microwave. The dishwasher smelled bad and had food stuck to the door and dirty dishes inside. We couldn’t use it because there was no dishwasher or dish soap. A cupboard had half-empty soft drink bottles, stale open rice packets, salt, and other food that wasn’t usable. Pots and pans were piled carelessly in the display case, all dirty with smudges and black grime. Some were broken or missing handles. Plates and glasses on the rack had fingerprints and smelled as if they’d been washed without soap. The bathrooms were grimy too. The small shower tray was surrounded by dirt and old limescale, and the toilet had a dark, black-encrusted bottom like a public restroom. There was just a little soap in the small bathroom dispenser, likely left by another guest, and toothpaste stuck to the bottom of the toothbrush holder. The large bathroom’s whirlpool tub didn’t work as a whirlpool, so it was just a bathtub. Hair was stuck under the faulty drain plug. Its toilet wouldn’t flush because the drain was broken, so we used the other bathroom after the first time. The mirror light was missing a bulb, leaving only a small side light, and the toothbrush holder had beard residue on it. In the main bedroom, there was no central or bedside light, only a dusty lamp on one side. The floor lamp on the other side couldn’t reach a wall outlet because the headboard blocked it. In the small bedroom, I moved the red nightstand because its corner was too close to my son’s face, and dust balls fell out. The plaid throws used as runners were covered in hair, so I shoved them in the closet. When I removed a pillowcase to use one of our own for my child, the pillow underneath had no terrycloth cover and was coated in yellow goo.