The owner of the property really knocked herself out with furnishing this place. She has a linen closet full of sheets perfectly organized and provides an ample amount of towel sets. Dishes and silverware supplied were ample and much better than other places I have stayed. This place has all of the comforts of home except for one thing.
That one thing is control. Before check in, you are instructed to call between noon and 2 PM to have about 20 minute conversation with her with very specific instructions. There was so much information I wasn’t sure I was going to remember everything. Then, there is a booklet on the coffee table with pages and pages of instructions and rules. “Don’t use this kind of detergent on the towels”, “Don’t put this in the dishwasher”, etc. Included in that is her expectation that you recycle trash with a list of what is recyclable. Any other place I’ve ever rented, there is only one simple rule to take care of the place. No one wants that stress. There was also a paragraph about if she doesn’t receive a five star rating that it is not considered acceptable to them. I found this to be totally inappropriate because what she’s doing is she’s trying to get her guest to give her five stars to skew her ratings.
The biggest issue with control is the thermostat. You can’t change the thermostat without calling her or sending her a text message, which I did once, and it took her over an hour to answer. This is absolutely ridiculous! So, our second night there we froze while watching TV and had to get a blanket. I spent our last two nights there sweaty and clammy sleeping in the bed because of the humidity.
This property also has another rental unit that consists of what was originally the garage to the left side of the house. Yet, I was instructed to park on the left side of the driveway. Why wouldn’t I park on the right side if where I’m staying is on the right side of the property? That renter appears to be long term. He set his trash out in the middle of our side of the driveway. A-hole!
Several other functional problems with this rental: 1) the hot tub in the master bath with no shower effectively renders it unusable to bathe, 2) the Tudor nook where the TV is located renders it unviewable from most of the living room.
When I texted the owner several messages at check out, I received no response. This did make me wonder if there were cameras and if my comments about her tight grip were overheard. I looked!