Bayview Boathouse

When something is this unacceptable, I feel its fair to let others know. We rented the entire house with our family for a long-awaited holiday and were particularly keen on its advertised privacy and seclusion. We were looking for privacy as well as the ability to fish, kayak etc. To be fair this property does offer a lakeside position and with some significant repairs, could offer nice facilities. The house itself is nice, but unfortunately there are too many other issues that let it down. In the spirit of full disclosure here, we contacted the host on the way to the property due to the bushfires. News media advised us not to travel to Bairnsdale, but our host assured us there was no issue. She asked the age of our children and thats when I realised, we had booked for 4 people and not 5, so had an extra guest. As we had rented the whole house, I didnt think it was an issue and she advised she had made up all beds so it no problem. Ok, so on we went to our holiday! We were greeted by a long stretch of dirt road to a property indeed in the middle of nowhere. This means you cant really get anywhere without a car as walking along it wouldnt be ideal. The thing we didnt know was that the host lives 10m away on the same property. Depending on your host, this may not be an issue. Unfortunately, in this case, it was a huge issue. On our third day at the property we received an email from Airbnb advising the hosts wanted to charge us $200 for the extra guest. Unsure what this cost covered we countered it by advising we had not slept the first night due to excessive noise of an air vent in the chimney (fixed the next day by the host) We were also interested how they came to this cost? This was simply an email to Airbnb and we carried on with our holiday assuming we would work through it with Airbnb. We didnt realise that the host was very upset by this (it appears the email may have been taken out of context due to being third hand) and in all honesty nothing prepared us for the next event, as we were simply trying to relax and enjoy ourselves. From this point on things got quite bad. The host visited our private house we were paying to stay in at 10pm one evening and threw our belongings from the veranda into bushes, After we investigated he jumped from the bushes & ambushed my 18 year old son and then proceeded to verbally abuse me, telling me I was an arrogant city person and to f*** off home. He said we were to leave his property the next morning. No reason was given. After his tirade he began to drive his car up and down in front of our private house turning his headlights into our bedrooms. We didnt get much sleep, concerned for our children and our belongings. The next morning, we again tried to find out the issue, but he again verbally abused us. We left as there was little else we could do. I thought the bushfires were scary until I met this unhinged guy. But he chucked us all into the surrounding fires with no alternative accommodation and his parting shot was careful of the fires .Many things were misrepresented about this property. It is not very private, you have people, including the hosts and dogs walking across in front of the house. One morning the host mowed the lawn at the front of the cottage, stopped, and walked up to the bedroom window and peered in! They use the jetty, the spa (which stinks), the tennis courts etc. You basically stay on their property with them like a B&B. Which is fine if thats what you know and accept, not if you think you are getting a private secluded house. A visitor of ours (for 4 hours) prompted a $80 day visitor fee after we left. So they also spy on you and use this to make up additional costs, even though they supply no house rules or even basic information in the cottage. Importantly though, no one should go on holidays and spend hard earned money to be abused. This is unacceptable. We feel concerned about others encountering a similar issue should they have the nerve to question a cost added to their bill!
Aug 2nd, 2019

Dec 24th, 2017

Jul 19th, 2016