Our 5 day family visit to Rome was tainted by this rental. We had issues w/ plumbing, WiFi (only 2 rooms), coffeemakers, loud morning street noise, & worst of all, suspected Bed bugs.
On check-in day we found instructions: Do not place luggage on the bed, that is how bed bugs are spread. Two days after check-in my daughter & I were getting large, 1 inch, roundish, red bites. By the end of the stay we each had 12-15 bites. I notified the rental contact (Maddalena) by text. The next morning she arrived (didn’t bother knocking) & walked right in to find me in my pajamas.
She looked at the bites on my back & even took pictures. She pronounced them to be “mosquito bites”. There were no mosquitoes. Then she told me, "You complain too much". She seemed upset when I asked her to replace the broken cappuccino machine (she indicated wasn’t working on our arrival). It was not replaced.
The toilet in the master bath didn’t work. A plumber was called to repair it. I also noticed there was no top sheet on the bed, only a duvet, unless they washed the duvet after each renter (doubtful) this was not good. They had bed sheets delivered.
Before we rented, I sent a VRBO note to the owner asking if this apartment was quiet - the response was “yes”. We were on the second floor above the retail level. Imagine being 12 feet up in the mall packed with people at Christmas, w/ delivery trucks, cars & motorbikes coming through. The worst was glass recycling trucks that come thru every morning between 7-8 am. Stone streets & buildings reverberate the sound of breaking glass as they dump bin after bin of empty bottles into open trucks. My family was startled awake everyday - you won't need to set an alarm clock here!
After researching bed bugs, we were concerned about bringing them into our home. Not knowing for certain, we are following bed bug protocol. Our luggage has been sprayed w/ insecticide & is in storage. We have fumigated our clothes & are cycling them through a deep freeze for 5 days at 0F. We have also fumigated other items from the trip & cleaned it all, and have thrown some items away.
We have tried to contact the owner via VRBO (8 days ago, no response) to reach a resolution (a partial refund to cover the cost of our Bed Bug eradication). There has been no response. I have photos & video of all of this. We have enjoyed many homes via VRBO/homeaway. This owners lack of response/lies are unacceptable. VRBO shouldn’t allow them to post rentals!!