Stayed with them twice now, with several families. Most recent stay was a property called "Oak Haven" which is rented as "no pets permitted." We had wanted to rent the property we stayed at about 6 months ago, but when we asked if the pull out couch had been fixed (no support on foot end), it had not. I appreciated their honesty about that.
I had specifically discussed our pet allergy issues with the reservationist, who was very helpful. On arrival at Oak Haven, we found a dog food bowl and mat in the dining area of the home. As it was late and we had small children along we decided to see if we could tolerate this. On reporting this the second day of our stay, nobody seemed able to explain it. Nobody ever called to discuss or remedy the situation.
Home is very spacious. Jetted tub in bath works. We appreciated the small starter bag of paper towels, etc. Home was clean, and we are all pretty neurotic about this. Most dishes had food on them, kind of like they had been washed in dishwasher without any pre-rinsing. Dishwaster detergent cup is broken, so this may have had something to do with that. Heat is difficult to control but tolerable.
Most beds were pretty comfortable, perhaps excepting the two twins. But, kids will sleep just fine there. Hot tub was also clean. Internet worked well. Fireplace was nice, with plenty of large wood, but no smaller wood to get fire started easily.
Furnishings are a bit rickety--some are dangerous if you have children. For example, a clunky VCR cabinet in the loft actually falls apart if you try to move it at all. The air hockey table advertised is also broken--still works and the children weren't wise enough to know that it wasn't quite right. :)
Unfortunately, the hot tub didn't work. There were some error codes flashing on the control panel. When we called to report this, Elaine was very nice and had the hot tub tech, Nick, call us. He suggested we fill the hut tub with more water with the hose out back. (If they service their hot tubs weekly as they indicate, why wouldn't there be enough water in it?) We connected the hose to the spigot, only to find that the hose was evidently filled with frozen water, so we could not fill it. We found a bucket and filled the tub, but this did not restart the system and the error codes remained.
So, we called Elaine again. She explained that the tech was in a class, so he would be out in about 1.5 hours. When he arrived, he did not speak to any of us, but serviced the hot tub and left without explaining whether we could use the tub or what had happened. We called Elaine who was very apologetic about his behavior. She asked that we get the card from the side of the tub and read it. We then read that he had added chemicals, so we could not use the tub for at least another hour. Funny, we didn't need chemicals when we added water, but I guess it meant Nick didn't need to return to service that hot tub in the next 1.5 hours. :)
Elaine stated she would follow up with us and would see to it that a discount was provided for the hot tub malfunction. It has been over a week and nobody has called or connected, but they cleary have our email as they keep sending automated messages.
Today when I called to follow up, both Keisha and Elaine are mysteriously unavailable. Christie, who took my call, was rather short and not very helpful. Regarding the "pet free" issue, she stated she didn't have any notes about that. She actually asked me, "Well, was the home clean?" Clean seems a different issue that suffering allergy symptoms on your vacation after you've paid a premium for a nice place. read more