An anonymous family says their trip to Northern Ireland was “completely ruined” after a bizarre debacle in which they were greeted by sex toys and a bloodstained mattress upon arriving at their rented holiday house.
As reported by The Irish Times, Paul Norris [not his real name] and his wife had booked the five-bedroom venue, which cost £300 per night, at an undisclosed location in Northern Ireland for a week’s holiday with extended family, including four young children.
Mr Norris said they were met by a bloodstained mattress, unsecured medication and a master bedroom full of sex toys and bondage gear.
The host of the property purportedly claimed he ‘hadn’t got around to cleaning the place because police had shot his dog after it escaped and bit someone’.
Mr Norris added that after his five-year-old son initially opened a bedside cabinet, where he found the sex toys and medication, the family “quickly moved the children into the kitchen, where we found an open bottle of nicotine vape liquid on a worktop, and checked the other bedside cabinet and wardrobe”.
These contained even more items including “ropes, whips, penis enlargers, handcuffs and opened tubes of lubricant.”
Mr Norris emailed photographs of the pills and sex toys to Vrbo, which is an online marketplace for vacation rentals that they booked the property through.
It is also part of Expedia Group, an international travel tech company, which informed Mr Norris to complain instead to the host.
A customer services agent repeatedly claimed that the health and safety implications were “minor” and that he did not therefore qualify for a refund.
Mr Norris contacted the host who, he said, further suggested he would be accused of damaging the property if he pursued a refund.
The distressed dad criticised Vrbo’s handling of the entire incident, noting that the firm eventually offered to put the family up in a hotel while the property was cleaned.
They declined and Mr Norris instead paid £2,000 for a nearby Airbnb property.
Vrbo refunded him the cost of the original booking the following month but Mr Norris said the promised compensation has not been paid and the property is still listed on its website.
“Vrbo refused to publish my review, yet allowed the owner to post a zero star rating of me.
““The extent of what we found in that house was surreal and we felt trapped by the lack of support. I was forced to spend hours during the first three days of the holiday stuck on the phone – mostly on hold – to Vrbo, the host and my bank. The experience completely ruined our trip.”
Vrbo offered £1,000 (€1,200) in compensation to the family after The Guardian newspaper contacted the company regarding the strange story.
A spokesperson said: “We take the health and safety of our Vrbo guests very seriously and we are sorry Mr Norris had this experience.
“As discussed, we have now provided Mr Norris with compensation in addition to refunding his full booking and service fee, totalling over £3,000 (€3,600). Additionally, we arranged and paid for alternative accommodation. We also contacted the property host regarding cleanliness and safety issues. We regularly assess our policies and our health and safety team is currently reinvestigating this case.”