While I was living in my apartment, I rearranged and redecorated A LOT. I'm an artist, and like to make changes quite frequently. This caused there to be an excessive amount of nail holes, also wall anchors (slightly bigger holes). I figured I would lose part of my security deposit for this, so I asked one of the men who do maintenance for the apartment if that was something I should remedy before I moved out. I stressed the fact that there where "A LOT of holes.. A TON" to which the maintenance man replied, "don't worry about it, the painters take care of that." I still thought maybe he didn't realize how many I was worried about, because of his casual answer, so I stressed the amount of holes as "really, there's A LOT of holes, probably more than you think.."
He basically cut me off mid-sentence with his reply, "nope, don't worry about it, the painters take care of it."
I didn't take care of any holes, and was charged $100 from my security deposit.
I talked to the landlord and explained the situation. She replied, "Well, 'a lot' means different things to different people. There were 300+ holes, and I think he (the maintenance man) thought you meant something around 15-20 holes."

Yes, it will be your word against theirs and it will come down to the definition of "a lot" and what is or is not excessive.

If there wre 300+ holes I don't find $100 to make repairs to be high.