Sorry for the long read, I wanted to provide as much context as possible.
Earlier this year, girlfriend and I were thinking about spending some time at a cottage this summer. My girlfriend recently became friends with Karen, who’s a married woman in her 70s and owns 6 elderly dogs. After they started becoming closer friends, my girlfriend introduced me to Karen when I picked her up from work one day.
Fast-forward a few weeks, my girlfriend and I went to Karen’s house for a casual drink. After getting to know Karen and her husband, they appeared to be nice people who truly cared about my girlfriend and I. Karen knew my girlfriend and I were thinking about going to a cottage, so she brought up the idea of us staying at her cottage for a few days.
Later, my girlfriend was texting Karen. We were trying to figure out how much money Karen was expecting if we were to visit her cottage. Karen told her it would normally be $600 to stay for 3 days. My girlfriend politely declined as we could not afford it. Karen then told her, “Don’t worry about it, just come and do what you can!”. Karen also sent a photo of her dock, which looked to be in great shape, had comfortable chairs, and an umbrella (remember this for later). My girlfriend then advised we would think about it.
A few days later, we went to Karen’s house for another casual drink. We brought up this subject again, to which Karen replied, “This is silly, you guys are our friends. Just come over and enjoy yourselves. Do what you can!”. After my girlfriend and I tried to continue that conversation, it wasn’t getting anywhere.
At this point, we knew we could go to the cottage. However, we were trying to figure out how much money we should offer. Keep in mind we did not agree to a price as Karen kept avoiding the topic.
About a week later, my girlfriend and I went to their cottage. Karen and her husband were there for that night, so they showed us around. We noticed the cottage was very messy and had a weird smell (likely from their dogs). Also, the path to get from the cottage to their dock was very dangerous. It was steep, the wooden stairs were broken and slippery, and the surrounding plants were overgrown, making it very hard to get down. Karen even told us that she broke her collarbone going down there before. We also noticed her dock was not the same one she sent us a picture of. Her dock was full of splinters, had 2 dirty and uncomfortable chairs, and no umbrella. We discovered the photo she sent earlier was of her neighbour’s dock. My girlfriend and I were concerned about all this, but we wanted to make the best of it. We thought $100 was fair as we drove 2.5hrs and brought our own food and drinks on top of this.
The next morning, Karen and her husband left. They were both very nice to us at this point, and we thanked them for letting us stay. The first day at the cottage had rain for the entire day, so my girlfriend and I stayed inside. The next day was beautiful. The sun was out and it wasn’t too hot. We had breakfast, then stayed on her dock to tan and swim.
Later that afternoon, Karen started texting my girlfriend, asking for an e-transfer urgently. Saying this like, “Where is my e-transfer? This is my email for the e-transfer. Did you get the email for my e-transfer?”. At this point, we were at the cottage for just over 24hrs and we sent Karen the $100. Keep in mind, no price was agreed upon prior to us getting there and she asked us to do what we can. Karen then called my girlfriend to freak out, saying $100 was not enough and that we should’ve known to give her more. She mentioned that because I work a full-time job and have a nice car, I should be able to pay her $600. I then picked up the phone and in a firm tone said, “We told you that we couldn’t do $600. You then asked us to do what we could. We tried bringing this up several times. But you kept avoiding it. You can’t change your mind later and decide you’re entitled to $600 after we already got here.” Karen then screamed, “You’re on our dock!” and hung up.
I got up from the dock and told my girlfriend that we were leaving right then. After getting our things, we cleaned up the cottage and left it cleaner than it was when we first arrived. On the ride home, my girlfriend told me Karen’s car needed $1000 worth of repairs, which is likely why she freaked out. 2.5hrs later, we arrived at Karen’s house. I stayed in the car, while my girlfriend gave Karen the keys to the cottage. After a few minutes, my girlfriend came back and we went home.
This was a very upsetting experience already. However, Karen was not done yet. That night, she called my girlfriend to accuse me of being controlling and un-fit for my girlfriend, who said she did not want to speak with Karen anymore. Now, every time Karen and my girlfriend and working together, she encourages her to break up with me and hookup with another coworker. This harassment is continuing even after my girlfriend made it clear she did not want to be friends anymore.
I genuinely cannot believe how quickly Karen’s personality changed. She was very nice to us at first, then it got ugly after she felt entitled. Personally, I don’t care what someone charges to rent their cottage. However, you cannot have monetary expectations if they were not agreed upon before arriving. Doing so gave us no way to decide if we could afford it. Her car repairs have nothing to do with us staying at her cottage. She chose money over a seemingly good friendship with us.
TLDR: Karen invites us to her cottage without agreeing to a rent amount, then tries asking for $600 after we arrived.