“Richard, stop telling people everything is fine.”
He looked irritated.
“These guests have paid for their stay.”
“Yes. To you.”
He nodded.
“So?”
“So I never agreed to rent my house.”
Sarah stood.
“Mrs. Diane, we don’t want to cause trouble. If we need to leave, we understand.”
I looked at her.
She seemed close to tears.
She and her husband had apparently invited two other couples for a weekend celebrating their tenth anniversary.
They’d driven from Washington.
They’d purchased groceries.
They’d planned a boat excursion.
None of them had known they were entering a house without its owner’s permission.
“You haven’t done anything wrong intentionally,” I told her. “Let’s work out a reasonable solution.”
Richard laughed.
“See? No problem.”
I turned toward him.
“There is a problem. You’re going to refund their money and arrange alternative accommodations if they want to leave.”
He stared.
“Absolutely not.”
“Then we’ll document that refusal.”
Sarah looked toward her husband.
He stood.
“We booked through a platform. We can contact customer support.”
“Please do,” I answered.
I asked them to save their reservation confirmation and messages with Richard.
Then I took photographs of the listing from Sarah’s phone with her permission.
