On a recent Monday, my boyfriend and I arrived at B&B Zen Trastevere for a three-night stay. We were greeted with hospitality and shown to a huge, sunny room in Trastevere.
On Tuesday, my birthday morning, we left to explore Rome and affixed the Do Not Disturb sign to our door. When we returned to the room in the early afternoon to take a nap, the sign and our stuff was missing, including our suitcases and most of the personal belongings we’d set out. No one from the B&B staff was around!
After about 15-20 minutes of thinking everything was stolen and figuring out what the heck we were going to do, the host returned. Unbeknownst to us, Italian laws state a B&B owner must live at the property. Ours didn't, and booked all the rooms out. She told us that some sort of authorities or inspectors called and said they were stopping by very shortly, and if luggage was found in the room the owners would have a "big bill." Then, she told us not to return for an hour or two!
Without notifying us or asking our permission, they had moved our stuff to a different room. Before our exile, the host apologized and told us that “all the B&B hosts do this,” but it seemed really shady and unethical to me. It was very disappointing to be kicked out of my room, especially on my birthday. She offered prosecco to make amends, but all we wanted was access to the room that we’d paid for.