Our BAD experience with the short term rental of 9300 S Sandwood Lane, Oostburg, Sheboygan County,
WI
On this website we would like to share our experience in renting the
house offered as
"Peace &
Calm Awaits You on Your Own Private Beach... it's Your Happy Place" (VRBO).
The house consists of a ground floor with a master bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, dining area, living room and back porch with access to a wodden pathway to a small platform on the beach (Lake Michigan). The lower floor (basement) has three bedrooms, bathroom, laundry, common sitting area and exit to the backyard. A hot tub / jacuzzi is / was located in the backyard.
When stepping into the house, the first visual impression is nice, it includes an impressive collection of high quality designer furniture. The location close to the beach is lovely.
The price (~10,000$ for 9 persons for 6 days; 181$ per person per night) we've paid 100% upfront is for a premium residence as described in the VRBO offering.
Unfortunately, there are:
1. health and safety hazards
2. dirt / filth
3. missing contracted features / house is under construction
4. an uncooperative landlord / owner (or whoever is running that show)
on which we elaborate below.
The house consists of a ground floor with a master bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, dining area, living room and back porch with access to a wodden pathway to a small platform on the beach (Lake Michigan). The lower floor (basement) has three bedrooms, bathroom, laundry, common sitting area and exit to the backyard. A hot tub / jacuzzi is / was located in the backyard.
When stepping into the house, the first visual impression is nice, it includes an impressive collection of high quality designer furniture. The location close to the beach is lovely.
The price (~10,000$ for 9 persons for 6 days; 181$ per person per night) we've paid 100% upfront is for a premium residence as described in the VRBO offering.
Unfortunately, there are:
1. health and safety hazards
2. dirt / filth
3. missing contracted features / house is under construction
4. an uncooperative landlord / owner (or whoever is running that show)
on which we elaborate below.
1. health and safety hazards
- bathroom: larges patches of black mould on the ceiling
- whole lower floor ( three bedrooms, bathroom, common sitting area) has a strong, distinct mouldy odour, which makes sitting and sleeping there almost impossible
- raw nails sticking out of the wooden pathway to the beach (two children injured during our stay)
- decayed wood on pathway presenting a high risk of further injury
- stairs to back porch not usable and not properly secured
- wood planks on back porch damaged, giving way when stepped upon
- ceiling in dining room damaged, looks like it will come down soon
2. dirt / filth: the whole house has clearly not been thoroughly cleaned for many weeks, if not months
- scattered, large amount of garbage outdoor in front of lower floor exit
- refrigerator still filled with around 40 bottles of old sauces from former guests (opened, beyond expiry date)
- microwave completely dirty, damaged (fan running permanently when plugged in)
- plates, silverware had to be cleaned before using (oily/ dirty)
- BBQ / grill too dirty to be used
3. missing contracted features / house is under construction
- capacity for people staying in beds is 8, we had clearly booked and paid for 9 people: this means that there was one bed completely missing and one person had to sleep on a dirty couch for the entire stay in the lower floor sitting area !
- there is not outdoor hot tub ! only the concrete platform where it had presumably been located is still visible
Landlord giving false information about the listing. The VRBO description was for up to 12 people, no specific number / type of beds mentioned.
- the house looks like a construction site (several improvised roofing areas, building material stored at front entrance)
- the (large: 30 by 6 feet) dumpster in front of the house, completely blocking the driveway
- the pictures on the booking platform seem to have been taken years ago
Landlord gave notice one day ahead of stay that a storm had just broken the hot tub and that the dumpster was there to gather the debris. This is clearly not true: according to neighbours, the storm had happened at least 5 weeks ago. Grass has already grown over the area where the former hot tub was located
4. An uncooperative landlord / owner
When raising the false listing of up to 12 people again, the landlord replies
"people sleep on couches".
That is our personal favorite: yes, people sleep on couches when they crash with a friend, but not if they have booked a premium vacation home with a cost of 181$ per person per night !
That is our personal favorite: yes, people sleep on couches when they crash with a friend, but not if they have booked a premium vacation home with a cost of 181$ per person per night !
Reaction of the landlord when summarizing all the issues and escalating the case to VRBO:
"You are more than willing to check out today" (of course without a refund).
"You are more than willing to check out today" (of course without a refund).
The landlord confirms here that he is
filming tenants
on premises without authorization !
The landlord not only not reacting to our inquiries but raising incorrect
accusations
and
threatening
us
Finally, based on the single line statement "you damage my property" the landlord charged another 700$ via VRBO to our credit card !
Note that the authorization for the initial rental charge makes this possible.
Note that the authorization for the initial rental charge makes this possible.
Conclusions
(2022)
Recommendations
- The landlord / owner seems to be a group of several people (including also non-native speakers apparently). They are never showing up in person. However they are keeping dogs in the garage adjacent to the house and seem to be present on site (but we never saw them). Also, they have cameras in and around the house. It seems that somebody lives in the house when it's not rented out (oddly there's expensive furniture in the house which does not show up on the old VRBO pictures). All of this is spooky and we were happy when we left that property
- We have paid almost 10,0000$ for our stay (181$ per person, per night). All of this is completely unacceptable, and hence we have setup this website to document our case and to warn other people
- We have brought this case to the attention of VRBO, the Oostburg village president, the Sheboygan County department for Tourist Rooming House Health & Safety, the State of Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, and contacted a local lawyer as well a lawyer in our home state. We will update this page in the future (investigations have been launched).
- Please contact us at contact@oostburg.info
in case you have made a similar experience / could supply additional information.
Let's join forces... -
Update 2025:
- Many folks contacted us to inquire about the house, if to take legal action, etc. Many thanks !
- The owners insulted and threatened us again, also started to shitpost, etc. Fortunately they don't seem to have any idea about the legal situation and how the Internet / search engines work
- VRBO removed almost all reviews (incl. ours) with negative comments
- The house was also listed on AirBNB, but the ad was removed (probably because many negative reviews started to appear)
Recommendations
- Do not rent this place, especially not with children, as it is a health & safety hazard
- Do not book on a platform which does not offer any transactional security, i.e., that the landlord only gets the full amount of money after the existence of the property and its features is confirmed by the tenant on the first day
- Request a written contract before paying anything