Oh lorb, this had me howling with laughter so loudly my fiancée asked if I was okay, so I just finished dramatically reading it out loud and both of us were howling with laughter throughout so much we probably woke the neighbors!
I know these real estate photos of which you speak. I've often thought, "Was this taken with the camera of an ancient flip phone?!" And "Are these people hoping to NOT sell their house?"
I think about our American expectations when house hunting and how incredibly nitpicky potential buyers tend to be. If you so much as have a wall painted anything other than white or beige and if you have the audacity to leave art hanging on the walls, homes won't sell even when there's a scarcity of homes on the market!
Definitely doesn't seem to be an issue here in Portugal lol.
I’m wondering if this might be why some [mostly American] hotel/Airbnb reviews are so off the rails [to me] about what seem to be minor imperfections or inconveniences? I’m a self-named neatnik who also appreciates good photography so I do take into consideration the images meant to show where I’ll be staying but at the same time I can appreciate people’s best candid efforts & cultural norms, so I rarely have those nitpicky responses. Though I do sunconsciously keep a count and when the little nonsense builds to overwhelming my enjoyment of a place, I remark on it.
All that said, I can see where Jen is coming from re: the mere suggestion of snakes in her space and it is pretty hilarious that they remained in the pics. :)
You're probably on to something here. That said, I stayed at a place in London this summer billed on Booking.com as "lovely and quiet" in the title and the pictures didn't look so bad, but it was such a house of horrors that I stayed only the one night out of the five, pre-paid nights. The last straw for me wasn't the trash and cobweb infested hallways, the dirty linens shoved into a closet in the hall, the faux security panel on the outer door (you literally just had to push the door open, the keypad was meaningless), the loud construction and traffic outside, the broken shower head dangling from the wall in the shower too small to turn around in, the lack of toilet paper (I had to go purchase my own), the angry man yelling into the phone all night long, or the ghastly smell emanating from the refrigerator... no, it was the mouse in the bedroom that finally did it for me. I lost hundreds of dollars, btw, because Booking could only get the property owner to refund half of my pre-payment. I even sent pictures of the mouse, who kept peeking out several times to see if I was still there. Lovely and quiet my arse lol.
Oh no! That is not remotely off the rails *on your part* and I’m so sorry. What I’ve seen an unfortunate amount of is people losing their minds over the toilet paper issue...maybe the tiny shower because that is a more-often-than-not occurrence in London. But all of the egregiously offensive + misleading details are definitely worth complaint and expecting a refund. :(
So is that typical in a London letting to not be provided with toilet paper? Oh also, there was no trash can or even a bag in the room. Probably why the hallways and starlirwells were full of garbage lol. I stick to proper hotels now after that experience.
I've had other good experiences with Booking, but I was deeply disappointed in their ability to make this horrible situation right. If I'm dropping hundreds or over a thousand dollars on accommodations, I don't like knowing that it's a potentially losing gamble. A proper hotel has a higher likelihood of satisfying me, having the capacity to make a not ideal situation right, and often costs about the same anyhow.
No, the TP thing isn’t typical but tiny showers are - not sure we’ve ever had a regular human-sized space in our London/Paris/Amsterdam travels, except one fancy family hotel suite we lucked into. Otherwise we try to bathe while fighting the clingy shower curtain. 😟
Lol! Jen this story gets better each time I hear it and I even got to see those snakes in the photo! We have shared some good laughs over Portuguese real estate listings! My favorite is all the photos of the toilets - from different angles too! Like, sure I am glad to see there is a toilet but does it need to be the first photo in the set of photos? And then there are all the pool photos that go on forever before you get to see the inside living space. It’s definitely funny!
Oh lorb, this had me howling with laughter so loudly my fiancée asked if I was okay, so I just finished dramatically reading it out loud and both of us were howling with laughter throughout so much we probably woke the neighbors!
I know these real estate photos of which you speak. I've often thought, "Was this taken with the camera of an ancient flip phone?!" And "Are these people hoping to NOT sell their house?"
I think about our American expectations when house hunting and how incredibly nitpicky potential buyers tend to be. If you so much as have a wall painted anything other than white or beige and if you have the audacity to leave art hanging on the walls, homes won't sell even when there's a scarcity of homes on the market!
Definitely doesn't seem to be an issue here in Portugal lol.
Real estate in PT is a whole new world.
I’m wondering if this might be why some [mostly American] hotel/Airbnb reviews are so off the rails [to me] about what seem to be minor imperfections or inconveniences? I’m a self-named neatnik who also appreciates good photography so I do take into consideration the images meant to show where I’ll be staying but at the same time I can appreciate people’s best candid efforts & cultural norms, so I rarely have those nitpicky responses. Though I do sunconsciously keep a count and when the little nonsense builds to overwhelming my enjoyment of a place, I remark on it.
All that said, I can see where Jen is coming from re: the mere suggestion of snakes in her space and it is pretty hilarious that they remained in the pics. :)
You're probably on to something here. That said, I stayed at a place in London this summer billed on Booking.com as "lovely and quiet" in the title and the pictures didn't look so bad, but it was such a house of horrors that I stayed only the one night out of the five, pre-paid nights. The last straw for me wasn't the trash and cobweb infested hallways, the dirty linens shoved into a closet in the hall, the faux security panel on the outer door (you literally just had to push the door open, the keypad was meaningless), the loud construction and traffic outside, the broken shower head dangling from the wall in the shower too small to turn around in, the lack of toilet paper (I had to go purchase my own), the angry man yelling into the phone all night long, or the ghastly smell emanating from the refrigerator... no, it was the mouse in the bedroom that finally did it for me. I lost hundreds of dollars, btw, because Booking could only get the property owner to refund half of my pre-payment. I even sent pictures of the mouse, who kept peeking out several times to see if I was still there. Lovely and quiet my arse lol.
Oh no! That is not remotely off the rails *on your part* and I’m so sorry. What I’ve seen an unfortunate amount of is people losing their minds over the toilet paper issue...maybe the tiny shower because that is a more-often-than-not occurrence in London. But all of the egregiously offensive + misleading details are definitely worth complaint and expecting a refund. :(
So is that typical in a London letting to not be provided with toilet paper? Oh also, there was no trash can or even a bag in the room. Probably why the hallways and starlirwells were full of garbage lol. I stick to proper hotels now after that experience.
That has not been our experience, so I think it's probably like any Airbnb, VRBO, etc. in that your mileage may vary.
I've had other good experiences with Booking, but I was deeply disappointed in their ability to make this horrible situation right. If I'm dropping hundreds or over a thousand dollars on accommodations, I don't like knowing that it's a potentially losing gamble. A proper hotel has a higher likelihood of satisfying me, having the capacity to make a not ideal situation right, and often costs about the same anyhow.
No, the TP thing isn’t typical but tiny showers are - not sure we’ve ever had a regular human-sized space in our London/Paris/Amsterdam travels, except one fancy family hotel suite we lucked into. Otherwise we try to bathe while fighting the clingy shower curtain. 😟
Holy flipping moly. That's absolutely bonkers.
It totally was! I had no frame of reference for having such an urban experience. Roughing it in the woods would have been safer and more sanitary lol.
Lol! Jen this story gets better each time I hear it and I even got to see those snakes in the photo! We have shared some good laughs over Portuguese real estate listings! My favorite is all the photos of the toilets - from different angles too! Like, sure I am glad to see there is a toilet but does it need to be the first photo in the set of photos? And then there are all the pool photos that go on forever before you get to see the inside living space. It’s definitely funny!
Let's not forget the artsy photos of random things, like a bowl of apples or a light switch.
Or a tree apparently growing through the ceiling!
That was a good one. 😄