PUBLISHED ONJuly 13, 2022 11:18 AMByMelissa Teo One family's holiday to Genting Highlands gave them more stress than joy after their terrible experience with their rental apartment.
In a post on Facebook group Complaint Singapore, one of the affected parties, Adlina Mazlan, detailed her account of the incident, calling it a "vacation disaster".
She shared that her family had booked an apartment called Maxhome@Vista Residence on travel platform Booking.com. It has a 7.6 rating out of 10.
Upon their arrival on June 22, the family was shocked to find that the apartment had not been cleaned after the previous guest and was in an awful mess.
Apart from unmade beds and used bedsheets, the family said they also found used cigarette butts, Q-tips and sweet wrappers strewn around the house.
There was also an uncleared trash can, half-eaten food and unwashed dishes in the sink.
On top of the mess, Adlina said the house had a stench.
"If the house is not ready, why can't they tell us courteously to wait downstairs for a while? Why trouble us to take the keys from the mailbox ourselves," wrote Adlina.
The family called a representative from the apartment and the family was told to leave their luggage in the house and wait downstairs for the place to be cleaned.
Speaking to AsiaOne, Adlina said they were not comfortable with that as they "found it ridiculous to entrust [their] luggage" with them.
She also revealed that after arguing with that representative, the family was offered another apartment.
"We had to reluctantly accept as we were already there and we were with children. It is a hassle to go out and find a new accommodation for us," she explained.
The second apartment was just as bad.
The toilets in the new apartment, said Adlina, had a "sewage smell", the walls were mouldy and the bedsheets and blankets were stained and dirty.
"It's as though they never cleaned or replaced [them] after each customer's stay," she said.
That was not the end of their nightmarish experience.
After the family checked out of the place three days later and were en route to Singapore, a representative from the apartment sent them photographs of a pile of bedsheets and accused the family of dirtying them, Adlina said.
He allegedly said that the family would only need to pay a RM150 ($47.60) compensation to be deducted from their initial deposit of RM400 if they don't leave a negative review.
However, he threatened that if they choose to leave a negative review, the entire RM400 would be forfeited, added Adlina.
Later on, another representative from that apartment forwarded a message from a man saying: "After he leave five stars then we will refund the RM250 within two working days."
Adlina said she has not decided on her next course of action and if she'll report the matter to the Malaysian police.
This traveller and her family aren't the only ones with negative experiences with Maxhome@Vista Residence although there were positive reviews as well.
One Singaporean guest that stayed at the apartment in June left a negative review saying that that the place is "strongly not recommended for family staycation", adding that the place had "poor service, poor house keeping, poor cleanliness".
Another guest from Malaysia who stayed in the apartment last June said that he faced similar problems as Adlina and her family, including the hotel room not being cleaned.
He also claimed that the beds had bed bugs.
AsiaOne has reached out to Maxhome@Vista Residence for their comment.
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melissateo@asiaone.com
