Our family (of professionals) has rented a number of properties for vacation and weekend getaways, and this one was the first that really had us questioning home vs hotel.
The reviews were surprisingly good…even after looking again following the first couple hours of our experience. We’re not always looking for the Taj Mahal, but clean, safe, and excellent service should be the foundation of any rental!
It began with a late check-in. Food left in refrigerator; (lots of) flies in the kitchen light; missing or non-working lightbulbs and light fixtures; non functioning smoke detectors; an empty fire extinguisher; no TV service; no internet; black mold in the basement bedroom ceiling; no outdoor lighting to see when trying to come in; and a front (main floor) door that wouldn’t open which meant only the basement (first floor) door to enter…or escape.
This already sounds bad enough, and some items could have been mildly overlooked, but we reached out to the manager for help, asking about things like lightbulbs, outdoor lighting to see when coming in, smoke detectors, TV, internet, etc. you know, just the basics!!
First, we were rudely told that the description never said anything about outdoor lighting. That the internet was not for streaming. Then told we could find lightbulbs in the utility room where we only found a few large flood-light bulbs, too big to fit into some fixtures - even if they were functional. But what we did find was lots of mouse feces! Something we did not share with many members of our family.
Sadly, we were stuck several hours from our homes on the eve of New Years Eve in a rental with poor service, a muddy driveway, and a choice to make the best of it or keep finding more wrong.
We’re a family who prefers to see the silver lining, so we had some cocktails, played games, and enjoyed the surrounding ski lodges, shoppes and restaurants. We opted not to pursue the unhelpful property owner/manager, or even contact the fire inspector on the holiday weekend. Thankfully, nothing else went wrong, and our family stayed safe.
We’ll definitely scrutinize the next rental and be prepared with a Plan B so this doesn’t happen again!
A BIG NO on this property!!!