FairHaven in FairPlay truly was like a home away from home Very clean and cozy. Easy and accommodating to reserve in and checking out. The hardest part about staying there, was having to leave. Will definitely use Home away from home again for our next trip out to FairPlay. Highly recommended them. 5 star hands down. read more

We rented Horizon Ridge northwest of Fairplay for 9 nights in late September 2024. Our experience was great. The house was as described. They provided all the information needed on a timely basis. They checked in with us during our stay to see if we needed anything. I can't think of anything else they could have done to make our stay more pleasant. this was our view from inside the dining area. read more

Second Home Vacation Rentals - Vacation Rentals Near Me - Alma, Colorado

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I wanted to share the experience we had trying to rent a Second Home cabin (The Claim) and the fallout from that experience. As we were getting in the car to head up to the cabin we received a phone call from Angela, the property manager. She informed us that the cabin was not available due to the heating system not working and wanted to reschedule us with another cabin. The cabin she chose was a major downgrade from the cabin we were promised, and I let her know as much when we arrived there. I wanted a cabin that had the same basic amenities as The Claim, but it was difficult getting her to help us, so we eventually settled on a place that had no coffee table, no end tables, was much smaller than The Claim with bathrooms that had a bad odor and side door that was wide open when we arrived. We decided to only spend the one night and leave the following day. When I wrapped things up with Angela as we were about to leave, I told her this was a very disappointing experience, that we had learned our lesson working with Second Home, and her response was, "sounds good". My takeaway from this experience, much like the experience when we rented Grandpa's Cabin and the damage done to our car due to negligence with the driveway, is that Angela is god awful at her job. She has all the people's skills of a malfunctioning robot, talking when she should be listening and vice versa. She has no empathy, sympathy, or even an ounce of warmth, her mission is to stay out the messy business of human affairs. We really needed help and she either refused, dragged her feet, or just plain did not care. read more

I booked a vacation rental through second home second chance 10 months prior to my trip and out of the blue they email me and cancel the trip because the owners decided to use the property. We are vacationing with several families and have flights booked, snowmobiles rented and several other arrangements made but no consideration was even given. I can't believe they would do this and ruin a family vacation. Beware this is how they do business. read more

I had the nearly the same experience as another reviewer. However I had seen past reviews on some of the cabins so I inquired about the hot tub situation. I received 2 different emails with an invoice of the cost of each cabin (both said new hot tub). I chose one. Susan emails me back to get more info (evidently she needed names and ages of everyone staying there???). After a few back and forths I get an email stating that the cabin was a 3 night minimum and did we want to get another night (wouldnt I have asked for 3 nights if I wanted 3 nights). I told her no and she then told me she couldnt rent it to me then...that she goes by the owners rules and since the ski season is "busy" that owner didnt rent for less than 3 nights. Reminder...SHE sent me the info on the cabin, I didnt find it...I was actually looking at another one. I proceeded to ask her, after checking that cabins "Availability Calendar", if she would call the owner. You see, the cabin only had 4 days rented out all month.... why wouldnt the owner change the rule to make a few bucks on a cabin that was going to be vacant 80% of Jan/Feb?? Bottom line, we didnt HAVE to stay in that area...we live in Colorado and I was looking for a cabin ANYWHERE for my wife and sons birthday. And since Susan didnt want to put any extra footwork into it, it looks like we will be looking elsewhere. And after reading other Yelp and VRBO reviews, it has become more obvious how little this lady cares about her job, or the people who rent from her business. I just wish I could find the owners of these cabins and explain to them how much money they are losing by using this company. read more

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I highly suggest staying away from this company. We drove 12 hours to be treated awfully. First, the hot tub did not work, and we were given the run around from day one... with them saying it had worked the day we arrived. We were then told -- the second to last day of our stay the board was messed up. Multiple lights did not work, making it hard to see In a dim lit cabin, especially a closet. If you're staying for a week, then you definitely needed the closet to put stuff up. Anyways, I could let all of that go, however the way we have been treated since it's why I am writing this. Ten people were ate up with bed bugs. When this was brought to their attention, they repeatedly said they would have an exterminator come see if they really had them. A month has gone by, and they have blocked our phones, they refuse to show us that they didn't have bed bugs (but I'm not sure where people from 4 different homes would get them, when that's the only place we all stayed and no one had them prior to arriving). Angela has hung up on my sister, blocked both of our phone numbers and has shown the worst customer service I've ever experienced. I don't leave bad reviews, ever, but this is one company that others should know about. I wouldn't even give one star if I didn't have to. read more

This company owns or manages quite a few houses in Alma and Fairplay. We have stayed in the Shangri La and Elk Run homes. We stayed in Elk Run in early March. The heat stopped working and the hot tub was malfunctioning. I contacted the manager, Susan Bigham. She offered a refund on the spot and I tried to be nice and suggest that she just offer us a discount on another house in the future. She enthusiastically agreed. 3 weeks later, she's changed her tune and is unwilling to honor her commitment. Feel free to message me if you'd like more details. read more

I rented 'Twin Peaks Overlook' 3 bedroom, 3 bath house from Susan at Second Home Second Chance. It advertised a well-equipped kitchen, wood stove, pellet stove, barbeque grill and master bath jaqcuzzi tub. There was no wood for the wood-burning stove. Had we been told, we could have brought our own. This was never mentioned. THere was no cutting board in the kitchen. We ended up using a ceramic plate - not too great! There were 6 of us. None took a shower the 1st nite. 3 stayed home the following day, 3 went skiing. The 3 who stayed home took showers during the day. By the 3rd shower there was no more water. We were not told beforehand, but the informational book left in the home mentioned that the home was on well water and may need time to recover. The 3 who skiied, did not get a shower. Again, this was never mentioned beforehand. The pellet stove did have pellets but not one of us was able to get it to work. The home was plenty warm, we were just looking forward to these niceties on our vacation. The second night we had brought grillable items, only to find out that there was NO propane! I mentioned all of these things to Susan at Second Home Second Chance on our drive home. She offered no condolences or apologies. It was all OUR fault for not letting her know. It seems to me that this is the responsibility of a 'Property Management' company; i.e, to ensure that everything advertised is provided. I would not recommend renting from this company. read more

I hired this company to manage my cabin - and regretted it every moment thereafter. I will keep this numbered, though it could be a novel. 1. I stopped in the office 6 times (driving up from Denver) during business hours and they were never there. 2. While never there, they never seemed to walk my property after check out (only the cleaner would go there) even though it was 10 minutes from their office, so no maintenance issues were ever taken care of until I walked the property and did them myself. 3. I had to have a friend go up to the cabin every 4 months to see what still hadn't been done - lights in the living room, hallway, and bedroom were out for months, and reported by multiple guests in the owner's journal...with spare bulbs even in the cabin. I guess it wasn't the cleaner's job...and management never did walk-throughs. 4. On one of my quarterly walk-throughs I found that they had not replaced the gas in the gas grill - and someone used charcoal. Note: I initially asked if they wanted me to bring extra tanks and they said "no, they change them out as needed and bill me". And it was listed in the journal over months that the grill was out of gas...they even had access to this journal. They didn't even know it as full of charcoal ash because they never inspect the properties, nor did they offer to fix it. I had to have someone come blow it out with a high power air compressor - and fill the gas myself. They take 30% to manage...enough about that. 5. The cleaner was never thorough - I got multiple complaints from guests - one who even thought the bed was remade with dirty linens (slobber stains on the pillow case). 6. They took a pet fee from people (which the owner gets none of), but only cleaned pet spots in the carpet (the size of a dinner plate) when I would report them after walking the property. 7. Their communication is awful - I could spend pages on this. Don't expect them to remember what they told you - or follow through, or to respond the first time. 8. Tax records were incorrect, one year they sent me documents for over twice my rental income. I had to do all the research for them to correct it, b/c they were still wrong the 2nd time. 9. All of my sheets came up missing - and I had other people's sheets, regularly - that did not at all match the décor -- was an eye sore. They even put the kid cartoon sheets for the blow up mattress on the master bed before they too came up missing. 10. The original agreement was the people had to book a minimum of 2 nights. I found out, later, that they were not booking people unless they stayed 5 nights (for months) after I had a significant drop in rentals....because the (1) cleaner they had was too busy to get out to the property more often (keep in mind I'm one of the closer properties to their office) - and they couldn't find another cleaner to hire. I lost thousands of dollars in rental income - and it was never discussed. 11. When I gave over 60 days notice to cancel the contract, they cancelled my rentals for that time, even though we had specific emails not to - that the closing date to sell the property had been purposefully chosen to accommodate current bookings for that time. She cancelled them anyway. 12. After she cancelled the bookings and the cabin was now empty for 2.5 months before the closing, she refused to return the key to the property - or return the missing sheets. I was told that I could come get the key at her office...of which she was never there. I was also told she would look for the missing sheets and let me know if she found them -- and assured me they wouldn't be at another property b/c they have linen bins for each cabin, though I have sheets that aren't mine --- and that she would leave them on the office porch if she found them and I could also make the 4 hour round trip to pick those up. The lady I sold the cabin to rented the property first through this management group to check it out overnight -- Susan sent her a rude email (she forwarded it to me) saying they were going to cancel her if she didn't pay right now; she had a receipt from payment 2 weeks prior....AND Susan KNEW she was a potential buyer!!!! And then when she got there, she said the kitchen was dirty with crumbs and spills on the countertop and in the drawers - as was pretty much the whole cabin. One of the sale contingencies was that the rental contract was terminated and didn't carry over to her ownership after closing - that's the owner and a renter saying they are terrible... She now manages it herself because she WOULD NOT use this company after her experience as a renter. I have a ton of other things I could write, but out of room - constantly appalled as I manage 3 residential properties myself, so I'm not new to this. 30% to book rentals and send a crappy cleaner - but only if they rent 5 nights so the cleaner doesn't have to go more than once a week. Unbelievable. They are the biggest reason I sold the property. read more

Susan ruins peoples vacations. After a week of back and forth about renting properties aside from the fact that her response time is little to none and for someone who's career is hospitality and vacations she answers emails not more than twice a day she first offered me a home that she then rented to someone else. Then I found another property that is vacant the entire month but she doesn't want to rent it as I am wanting two days and she is holding out for five days and as she explained it's a hassle to have to have the cleaning people to come in for a two day rental and then sending me an email stating that she had the perfect property for me just one day before we are to arrive and I said "I'll take it!". I'll take ANYTHING at this point. She then calls me the day that we are to leave and says, sorry, my cleaning lady hasn't had a day off and I'm not going to rent it. Just one cleaning lady for so many houses over a holiday weekend? I know there are people who are willing to work and as an owner you kick in when people don't show up. Communication is key. I have been trying to talk to her for a week. I said you needed to tell me what days you needed from me. Don't tell me at the last minute. I couldn't figure out what this woman wanted that would make it enough for her even at the last minute to get a house. Looks like were camping for the weekend. I'm just so sorry for all the people's vacation that she ruined that was during the winter and they spent money traveling here. read more

Didn't even get as far as making a booking for a property! The property we were interested in was very clearly listed on VRBO as a 2 night minimum, no where on the listing was there any other minimum mentioned. I emailed to check availability & received a reply that there was a 5 night minimum - we wanted 4 nights. I responded that as the VRBO listing was clear I hoped they would honor that listing. The reply I received was "This is the Christmas holidays and most people have a 7 night stay. We do a 5 night minimum over all holidays unless it just happens to fit between 2 other rentals. " I responded stating that as the error was clearly theirs I hoped that a compromise could be reached. Also asked for clarification that the rest of the listing was not misleading. Have not received a response, despite a couple more emails asking for the price of a 5 night rental. When looking for properties on VRBO I deliberately avoided anything that was associated with Susan Bigham - if the listing cannot be trusted I hate to think what service you would receive once at the rental. I pity the owners who choose this company to be their rental agents. Customer service from Susan Bigham is a very low standard, and they cannot even get a VRBO listing correct! read more

Poor Communication and Customer Service A group of us had planned on staying at the rental, "Aspen Grove Lodge," through this company and booked our vacation in late May. The week before our vacation we received an email telling us that the rental had a broken pipe and was no longer available and to call them. They were called right after the email was received and the lady who answered the phone had no idea what we were talking about. After she looked us up, she said they had been hoping the issue would be fixed by the time of our vacation, but that it wasn't. We asked if they had another unit for us since we were leaving a week later and her answer was maybe, that there might be another unit, but that it would be an extra $100 a night for the week. She wasn't even sure if it was available and would need to get ahold of her manager to see if (a) it was available and (b) if they would be able to offer it to us at the same price as the other since it was a last minute cancellation on their part. There were multiple instances of poor communication and customer service on their part: 1. We were not made aware of the broken pipe until the very last minute. We should've known about this as soon as the problem occurred in case it couldn't be fixed in time so we could make other arrangements for our stay. 2. Instead of CALLING us, they sent an email with a request to call them. 3. When called, the lady in the office had no idea who we were and what the issue was. I'm not sure where the blame falls with this, but when someone who has already paid $1600 for a rental for a week calls about a now unavailable unit the week before their vacation is supposed to start, it should be something the person answering the phone knows about. 4. They were not prepared with a solution when we called them. Not knowing whether another unit is even available is unacceptable. One of our group members had purchased airfare that could not be refunded. We were lucky enough to find a place through Airbnb last minute, but did have to pay an extra $450 for the week. As a group we were lucky in two ways with this (a) we were able to find another place and (b) we could afford it. If that had not been the case, our vacation could have been ruined completely. We visit Colorado quite often and would never again try to book with this company. read more

We staued at Chessetts Lodge and had a fantastic experience. We booked through Second Home Vacation Rentals and they were very nice to work with. We got stu k off of Highway 9 and called to get the number of a towtruck and the owner Susan actually came out and pulled us out with her truck. How many companies would go to that length. I am totally sold and we plan to return this summer too. read more