I love deals, I love bargains.  I can remember the price of every item I paid for, in which I got a deal – unlike my husband who remembers the price of everything we paid full price.  But there is one deal I passed up, and it was a smoking hot deal.

Every summer, usually at the end of the summer, we like to take a little trip to the coast.  Fresno is unbearable in the summer, with weeks and weeks of temperatures topping into the triple digits.  It becomes dry and dusty, and the heat is really awful (but it is a dry heat, which is somehow supposed to make a difference).  So, we will find a house, preferably on the beach, or very near a beach, which accepts dogs, and we pack everyone into two cars and go.  We have to take two cars, because Mikey, our Great Dane, takes up an entire backseat all by himself.

Several years ago, I really wanted to go stay somewhere in Malibu.  I thought that would be so nice.  The cool breezes coming off the water, the sun, the 80 degree temperatures, palm trees and outdoor dining.  Puppies running along the beach with not a care in the world. Ahh, sounds like heaven.

I searched the vacation rental websites, Home Away, Air BNB and some less well-known sites.  The houses were either too expensive, or too far from the beach, or the sleeping configurations were not right, or the house wasn’t available for the time we had scheduled for, or the they didn’t take dogs.  I searched and searched.

And then, one Saturday morning, I came across the perfect house.  It was almost too perfect.  The photos showed it as being situated right on the beach – panoramic views of the ocean everywhere.  The house was filled with crazy furniture, and tons of fluffy pillows in animal prints, even fluffier rugs, and huge artwork covering the walls.  It was like a house one would see in the movies.  It was a bit gaudy, but in an elegant way.

According to the blurb about the house, they did accept dogs.  So I texted the lady who owned the house and asked if the house was available, and would she accept rather large dogs, more specifically a Great Dane.  She texted right back and said of course, and that she loved big dogs.  I confirmed the availability of house.  And then I asked if the rental rate was right, because it seemed like such a nice house, with so many amenities (including the use of the Bentley, with a driver) and to be offered at such a low price (I think it was around $500 a night) – it just seemed too low.  And then there was silence.  She didn’t text me right back, in fact, it was about 45 minutes before I received a response.

When she did text me back, she said apparently someone had hacked into her online account and changed the price.  The house actually rented for about $3500 a night.  But…because it had been advertised at the much lower rate, she was willing to let us have it for that rate.  I tell my husband this piece of information, and of course he says “Hell, Yes!!!” we should take it.  But I thought about it for a while, and in the end I wrote her back, saying it was so nice of her to honor the advertised rate, even though it was a mistake, but I couldn’t accept it – that was too much to ask, and it was not her mistake anyway. I thanked her for her time.

Then, I started wondering, how does a person, who is not a movie star, afford such an expensive house, right on the beach in Malibu.  I had her full name and Googled it.  It turns out she and her husband own a very high quality porno film production company, and are quite well-known and make boatloads of money  That explains all the fluffiness in the home décor, I suppose.

Photo credit: pinterest.com, socal.com