My mother, her two sisters and I rented this lakeside home for a weekend in their hometown of Brownwood. The ladies all range in age from 83-89, and one is in poor health. We arrived at the house at the appropriate time, only to find that the keypad had not been programmed correctly for our entry. The lockbox on the back door, which also contained a key, did not work for us either.
It was 104 outside, so the older ladies sat on the covered patio while I began trying to contact the property managers. NO ONE answered my repeated phone calls or frantic voice mails. I tried calling and texting every number on the reservation as well as emailing the address included, all to no avail.
After about 2 hours, we asked the resident across the street if he knew how to get in touch with the owners. He had the phone number for the cleaning lady, and she has my everlasting gratitude for actually answering her phone. She explained that the lockbox had a button on the back to press--unfortunately, the button is covered with a foam pad which prevented us seeing it initially. We were finally able to get into the house around 6:30 pm, after sitting in the heat for several hours.
Around 8 pm, one of the owners finally called back to apologize for all the trouble. We talked and they offered a discount for our trouble, which was acceptable. What was NOT acceptable was that it took them so long to reach out. A contact phone number is worthless if no one bothers to answer the phone or respond to a text or email.
The house itself is lovely, spotlessly clean and we enjoyed our stay. One caveat--one of the bedrooms does not have access to a bathroom, not usually a big deal, except that this bedroom is only accessible by going outside on the back porch and entering through a door there. If one needs to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, they must go inside the house--which means the back door has to remain unlocked all night.