Paid €110 to stay in a badly converted garage advertised as ‘Boutique’ accommodation

TLDR; Accidentally, stayed in someone’s ‘converted’ garage in their old house following booking misleading listing – seems the housing situation is spilling into travel accommodation…..

I know today €110 doesn’t seem like a huge amount – I was travelling for work and intentionally booked the cheapest (what I thought was guesthouse) accommodation I could find but I’m really flabbergasted by this and would be interested in hearing others POV.

This wasn’t Dublin but was another city.

Listed as a boutique guesthouse and photos are very generous with fantastic use of wide angle lens… booked through Booking.com but have since checked and they have a website and are on other sites etc. The photo on their website showing the outside of the house has a garage built on the right which they have turned into a bedroom and that was the room I was in.

Arrived and knew something was off but couldn’t put my finger on it, the room door had a key in it but didn’t lock I initially thought I was doing it wrong but eventually realised that the door itself didn’t even close properly I then also noticed that it had a glass pane on the top half that had been painted in white. This was the old garage door still in place as use for the ‘bedroom’ door – right off the kitchen. The room was only big enough for the bed and two side lockers so my backpack and travel bag had to be put on the bed and when I was going to bed I put them between the wall and the bed.

I’m just going to bullet point everything to try and avoid an essay:

• There was note on the ‘bedroom’ door to stop people from entering without checking first that they had the right room – this leads me to believe that the owners are very much aware that this door does not lock let alone close
• Smell in bedroom was very very bad – paint-ish but with something else
• Smell in en-suite was worse – I’ve genuinely never smelt such bad smells
• Woke up at 4am with a headache I think from the strong smell – eventually left the room at 7am two hours early because the smell was so bad it was nauseating
• The water in the bathroom was boiling hot no other option – showering boiling, brushing your teeth in this and something I didn’t even know was possible: boiling hot water in the toilet to the point than even using the toilet was uncomfortable – steam literally rising out of the toilet bowl.
• Hair on shower wall
• Shower not draining boiling hot water just gathered straight away – couldn’t shower.
• The bathroom floor was covered in soft gym flooring between the toilet and the shower – I assume to catch water that isn’t draining
• There was black mould on the floor tiles, in the shower also and up about half knee way on the wall tiles.
• The duvet and pillows were the thinnest I’ve ever seen. Context: I usually sleep with one pillow here I had four stacked
• The towels were old – threadbare – might wrap around a child
• There was a small old window in the centre of the space where they had removed the exterior garage door and filled in the wall. It was double pane but the outer pane had been smashed out – pieces of glass still visible sticking out of the rubber. It’s to the right of the front door and clear glass so the only way of privacy is to have the blind closed while you’re in the room.
• There was mould on the glass in the corners of the window so it was clear that whoever cleaned the room didn’t even bother wiping this off
• It was also very visible that someone had painted over black mould on the white pvc on the window with white paint.

It was very clear that this was probably a family home that is now being let out as accommodation. I know that on airbnb you can book a room in someone’s house and stay there – I’ve never done this myself just entire spaces if I’m travelling for holiday’s for a few weeks etc. but I know you can. But this accommodation was more along the lines of that but being advertised as a ‘Boutique Guesthouse’.

The reviews are mostly ‘excellent’ and then there’s a few reviews where people clearly list the issues I had – apparently there is also a smaller room upstairs that is a converted bathroom – smaller than the room I was in (no room for side tables) and the shower room for this room is across the hall but you can’t close the door while using it as there isn’t enough space 🤣

Idk I feel like I just paid an almost hotel price for something that would be reported to the RTB