The physical unit was fine, and upon first glance it seemed clean other then the living room floor which had not been cleaned since the last guests and the bag of trash left on the landing up stairs. If this was all we experienced, we would not be writing about it. As we began settling in on the day of our arrival (4 pm check in; 5 night stay), we did see a pack of red pepper flakes that had been opened by an animal and animal dropping on the kitchen counter. We also saw an animal dropping in the master bathroom toilet area. A couple of hints that an animal (most likely a rat) had been in the unit at sometime. Then when going to bed later that night, we found dropping in both beds (master bedroom and second bedroom), on the floor near the beds in both rooms and more in the master bathroom. We wrote to the owners about the issue and asked if they had another property we could move into. Again, this was an issue we walked into, not a problem that developed after we had been staying at their property. We also reached out VRBO to whom we could send pictures. VRBO could not help because we could not send pictures of the ‘animal’. In the morning we saw that an animal had gotten into a sealed bag of fruit on the kitchen counter (all other food had been put into the refrigerator). Additionally more droppings were present in other rooms. Now we knew knew there was an active rat problem and could no longer safely stay here. The owner responded to our message by reporting that they had not had received reports of this issue from past renters or their housekeeper, and their unit was constantly occupied. They also stated that there was a rat and mongoose were a problem on the island and described the HOA’s pesticide program. They did nothing to help resolve the immediate problem we walked into at their property. Interpreting their message, it was our problem to deal with at their property. We checked out that morning, less than 24 hours from our arrival, and informed the owners. We requested a refund. We have not heard from the owners since and did not receive any type of compensation.
To put this review into context, we have never had an experience like this before or another type of other rental issue in the past 10 years of renting individual properties. We did not take writing this review lightly.