Before arriving I had reached out to the owner directly to confirm the property was in great condition due to hurricane beryl that had recently hit Galveston on July 8th. I was reassured the property was in perfect condition, never flooded or had any water damage.
To my surprise on arrival, during the middle of the night, when I opened the door to the property I was hit with an overwhelming smell of mold. There were humidifiers running with instructions taped to the humidifiers to not turn off or move the humidifiers. Due to my time of arrival I had no choice but to try and make it work with my family for the night. We sprayed Lysol and it did not phase the smell of mold. The property looked very clean however the smell was overwhelming to the point of causing headaches,coughing and nausea. After being there less than 5 hours I packed up my family and we left. I reached out to the owner directly and he was very defensive, called me a liar and said he wasn’t giving me back any money and then he offered to give me back 2 nights which did not account for the additional fees charged by vrbo; he should have done the right thing and refunded the entire amount due to his property not being held to normal living standards. Vrbo was not helpful as the owner had offered to correct the issue and they required pictures but it is impossible to take pictures of a smell of mold/mildew without spending time or tearing out walls to locate the problem. The mold/mildew was not an issue that