Spacious 3-bedroom apartment with AC, WiFi in welcoming Vancouver

There were red ants everywhere in the kitchen, on top of the countertops. We tried to eat dinner the first night there and ants crowded around the food. The unit looks like it was originally nice, but is now run down. The chairs and sofa were stained and worn. There was a black stain in the gasket of the washing machine, which appears to be mold impregnated in the rubber. There was a lot of hair over the drains of both showers. The bedding looked aged, coloured, and dirty. All bedrooms had dust over the floors and corners. We spoke to the property host and vrbo regarding these issues, mainly the concern of ant infestation, which is not sanitary or healthy, and is frankly unsafe for the food area (or any area) of a rental property. The owner came to meet us in a person, and after a long argument told us it was normal to eat with ants on the table, and that we had unreasonable cleanliness standards. He also told us we needed “therapy” due to this. He did send a team of cleaners who did a very good job of cleaning the place of dust, removing hair, and changing to clean bedding. He dropped off a can of ant spray. Despite this, the ants persisted, and the mold remained impregnated in the rubber of the gasket, and mildew over the curtains and blinds. We tried to ask for a refund for the remaining days, but the owner refused. Vrbo was unable to assist as well and said they could not provide any reasonable compensation for this.

Pickup of the key from a 7 Eleven a couple of blocks away is not a great street, lots of homeless and begging there. Arrived in the apartment to a strong smell of cabbage throughout. Seemed like this was coming from the food disposal unit in the kitchen sink. TV doesn’t work for just normal channels. Messaged the home owner to ask if there was a way to watch the olympics on a regular tv channel - got no response. There are only very light vertical blinds in the apartment and it doesn’t block out any light to the bedrooms, these blinds are not sufficient for anybody that likes to sleep in a slightly darkened room when it’s light outside. We therefore woke up at sunrise each day which isn’t ideal with young kids on vacation. The final straw was when we went to use the washing machine. We booked this accomodation specifically to use the washing machine and dryer to wash our clothes half way through our 1 month vacation. When opening the washing machine door the rubber seal area was black with mould and slime. We tried to wipe this but it was so thick we weren’t getting anywhere so put the washing machine on a sanitize program. Even after this program the kitchen roll to wipe the internal area was coming out with thick black sludge. We therefore had to leave the property a day early & book somewhere else with a washer dryer and somewhere that had proper curtains/blinds so that we could catch up with sleep. Messaged owner who states that blinds are fine & mould was just a stain

Elsewhere, I felt like the host set up the place for guests to stay. Here, I felt like I got to stay in owner’s home. :) Great location. Fully equipped w everything that many places overlook: plenty of space, towels, dishware, toiletries.