boat hire in Berlin · Ernst Riss — Seestern (1982)

Dear Sir or Madam, I hereby complain about our rental of the houseboat Ernst Riss Seestern from August 23, 2025, to August 29, 2025. The boat is in a completely dilapidated condition! Upon handover on August 23, 2025, everything was very dirty, with trash still in a dirty bucket. The bathroom (??) consists of a sink with a water pump that draws water from the inland waterway. The toilet consists of a bag for feces and a canister for urine. The refrigerator, supposedly new, was filled with beer bottles and moldy on the inside. The stove had burned out and was replaced by a single-burner gas stove. There was no coffee maker. There were no curtains on the windows, and the windows couldn't be opened because they were sealed with sealant. When it rained, water dripped into the cabin. The instruments on the steering wheel didn't work either, and the owner couldn't tell us which switch was for what, so we were told to just try it out. We then told him that the boat looked much better in the picture. His response: "I guess I took a good photo." When we asked about the power supply, he said there shouldn't be any problems for the week; if we were sailing and the sun was shining, there would be enough power. We might want to turn off the refrigerator at night. (What's a refrigerator on board for? After all, we had food with us.) And we should avoid stepping on the rear right stern as the boards there were already rotten/cracked. We actually wanted to leave immediately, but we had already traveled for six hours, so we decided to just make the best of the situation. That evening, when we first anchored, we noticed that the mooring/position light wasn't working. After the second night, we had no power in the morning, nothing worked: no water pump, no refrigerator, and the navigation tablet wouldn't charge either. I then tried to contact the owner, but only reached his voicemail. We thought that if we drove and the sun charged the solar panels, the power would come back on. But it still didn't work after a two-hour drive. So we drove into a harbor to charge the boat. This proved to be very difficult because the charging cable for the boat's power was too short, hanging off halfway, oxidized, and there was no adapter to plug it in anywhere. Luckily, the harbor master was kind enough to organize everything for us. We then charged for about three hours before the power came back on on the boat. In the meantime, the landlord called back, but didn't know what the problem was. We were supposed to download the app to access the box for the power converter, so we could restart it if necessary. But we didn't do that because the power was back on. Then from Wednesday to Thursday night, the power went out again. I then called the landlord around 10 a.m. and told him we wanted to return the boat and leave. He wanted to meet us between 3:30 and 4:00 p.m. where we had dropped him off at the beginning. He then came back at 4:40 p.m. and tried to tell us that we had used more electricity than we had charged. It was sunny all day Wednesday, and we only charged one tablet and one phone during the trip. In any case, we would like compensation for all the inconvenience and that you at Click&Boat ensure that the owner is not allowed to rent out his boat to anyone else in this condition. Hoping for a response and compensation. Sincerely, Tanja Rommerskirch