This reservation nearly ruined our vacation. It was fairly cute, and fairly clean. I would say VERY clean, but there were nasty soot marks from the top of the fireplace to the ceiling and all over the ceiling. This made me afraid to use the 3 DuraFlame logs that were kindly provided lest we die of smoke inhalation.
We noticed the note that said there should be "fresh fruit, oranges for the juicer and muffins" we saw, an empty fruit basket and no muffins. OK slightly disappointing but whatever at least there was coffee in the refrigerator and plenty of pots, pans, silverware, plates etc in a spotless kitchen.
A trip into the bathroom revealed crappy glycerin soap at the sink, and in the shower.. OK slightly miffed now.. when we pay $211/night I expect spa style soap, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and maybe a shower cap. When I perched upon the toilet I was startled by the seat shifting a good 1" or so. I also noticed the bathroom sink had dirty looking cracks in it. I could have forgiven the bathroom except the crappy soap and lack of spa style toiletries.
The love seat was cute and the television was of a decent size, I'm not sure how big I would guess 25". However the love-seat was pretty hard and not particularly comfortable. One of those "looks good but don't sit on it" jobs.
Off to the bedroom, there was a note when we arrived that the shade to the ultra-cool skylight over the bed, one of the reasons I picked this rental was broken and that they had left it in the closed position to allow us to sleep.. which was nice.. but I wanted to stare up at the stars not a black-out blind. Still bearable, UNTIL we laid down to check the comfort level of the bed, upon visual inspection it appeared to have a padded topper so I was hoping for the best. Unfortunately that padded topper must have been placed on solid granite! OMG! After 1 minute of lying on my side my hip felt bruised! There is NO WAY I could ever sleep on this bed, my boyfriend agreed. So we were there maybe an hour, and already left to search for something else knowing full well that we likely just ATE the $422 this room cost us, but also not wanting to ruin our vacation because we couldn't sleep the whole time. Before we left I looked to see what the HORRIBLE mattress was made of, it was a Serta Perfect Sleeper that looked like it might have seen a few years. We've had trouble with these at other locations, they're VERY hard.
We found a very nice room on Noyo Harbor for approximately $98 a night that had a better view than the Hayloft, a MUCH more comfortable bed, and even a continental breakfast. It was at The Harbor Lite Lodge in Fort Bragg. I won't go into how much I liked them here but I will review them shortly.
I think we should call the credit card company and see if they'll give us our money back for the other room, we rented it with the expectation of at least being able to sleep in the bed, and that didn't happen..
*UPDATE*
Today we received an email stating they had refunded one of the two nights we booked, and the security deposit. Normally they require a 30 day cancellation but considering the circumstances they refunded part of our money. I didn't expect that AT ALL and am pleased I think that is 100% fair. I will book another vacation rental with Mendocino Preferred Vacation Home Rentals, just not the Hayloft.
http://www.mendocinopreferred.com/ read more