We just stayed with Bailey Vacation rentals in Rio Del Mar. Their simply the best. Lisa in the…read moreoffice really took care of us. The place was clean and ready. Great location. They have great recommendations on places to eat just really great service.

This has been the worst experience I've had moving into a house in Santa Cruz in my 24 years of…read moreliving in this town. Beware of this company, they do not take care of their tenants, or do their job, which in it's most basic form would be to make sure the house is ready to be moved into on the agreed upon move-in date. I feel like I've been fighting with property management since the day I moved in a month ago, and it will probably take another month of back and forth ridiculous communication before I get all the things I paid $11k for to be done before the agreed upon move-in date. Here is a list of things I've dealt with, I am leaving them here so that others know what to look out for. The entire house was filthy on move in day, had not been professional cleaned for a move-in. It still has not, over a month later, partially due to them not getting communication right with the cleaners they finally sent, partially due to me being busy and out of town and not having the time to deal with it. They did illegally send cleaners into my home without my permission while I was on a trip, and still not clean. The landlord had agreed to moved out a bunch of his old furniture to make space for my stuff, and half of what was agreed upon to get moved was still in the house on Nov 1st. I moved it to the deck, for him to come and get, then told property management to get a tarp to cover it, so it would not get rained on. They never took care of the tarp, so it did rain on the furniture, one night I had to dragged mattresses into the house by myself. I went out and bought a trap the next day and they are now refusing to reimburse me for the tarp. The house was advertised with a hot tub, and it is broken, come to find out it has not been turned on for 2 years, which PM did not know, but the landlord did know. They put in the lease, that if the hot tub breaks down while I'm here they would not replace, but that was based on the fact that it worked to begin with. Then they said they would take $50 off the rent for each month the hot tub is not working, and when it came time to deduct that from rent they said "that is only if we can't get the hot tub working at all." (They are currently trying to get it working - so fingers crossed the can deliver on something they promised up front). The hot tub cover that was left behind, and the condition was disgusting, they said it was ready to use, though it is covered in black mold, slugs, and water is soooo dirty. There has been a dead rat under the house with rat droppings for this entire first month, and the landlord has stuffed old boogie boards on top of it twice, despite my request to take away the boards, which are mostly garbage. They left several large pieces of furniture for me to "deal with" after saying the landlord would be happy to take anything away I did not want to keep. cupboard drawers broken, closet floors need a carpenter to fix random floor boards, shower drain clogged. I am not going to get detailed about everything that has been out of integrity, but I'll close by saying, if you do rent a house from this PM be sure to go there a few days before your move in date and make sure you are getting your moneys worth and that the place is actually ready to move into. I like the house and the location, and I'm a really easy going person and fantastic tenant - worked with Portola PM for 13 years, no issues - so it's really been unfortunate to have this completely unnecessary experience, because it's tainted my view of the house, and left me questioning keeping it. My hope is that I can get everything worked out in my second month here and stay. And hopefully get to a place where I can stop communicating with PM about the house, they have been frustrating and terrible communicators. We shall see.....

I've rented with Beachnest several times. Their staff has always been super helpful and responsive…read more A special shout out to Briana! I'd suffered some very painful losses in the last year and feel so very grateful to have had a restful stay in a charming home. Many thanks, Beachnest!

I stayed in the most beautiful, quaint little beach cottage with my family for a special, much…read moreneeded get away. This property was better than we imagined; roomy, cozy and had everything we needed for a relaxing weekend. Walking distance from the beach we enjoyed sunrises and sunsets, there was a great yard for bbqs, stargazing, and jacuzzi time. I will definitely be back soon. Thank you John and Liz for being amazing hosts!

Simply wonderful. Beautiful setting, gorgeously maintained. Rustic yet clearly cared for with love,…read morehard work, and dedication. The grounds are beautiful, whether you just look out from the stately house, or if you wander on some of the trails -- maybe set for a spell on a bench. If you're looking to exhale and then breathe in amazing nature, you have found the place! The room is very comfortable, too. Our bathroom was plenty big and roomy. Loved the big bath (whirlpool, if you like). The 'full breakfast' is fantastic. Jen is a wonderful baker (a breakfast bread pudding one day; mini churros another day), and each morning we had a varied and hearty breakfast that was delicious and well-balanced. The house itself is big and inviting with hip old timey jazz pipedor more modern-day chanteuses gently piped in. Enclosed porch for reading or just relaxing. Our room had a private porch, too. So much here. So many ways to really unwind. Walking around the grounds is inspiring. I ran into Derek a time or two who was relaxed but busy on the many projects that keep him focused here. The whole place looks perfect for a wedding, or a family gathering, or even a business get-away. Or, of course, just a simple, lowkey retreat. Lovely hidden (but easy to find) gem. Can't wait to return.

Really beautiful venue for a wedding, beautiful displays on tables. (However, food: was so-so. )read more

Beautiful Hotel! We were very impressed when we arrived. It is impressive. The front desk young man…read morewas very friendly and efficient. We were quickly checked in and headed to our room. Our room was very spacious, nicely furnished, and clean. My husband wanted to raise the blinds but couldn't find a control to operate. We called to the front desk to ask about operating the blinds. He told my husband where the remote is located on the wall. Alas no remote. He said he wound send maintenance person up to raise the blinds. Then I noticed there was no shower curtain! Hooks but no curtain. Another call to front desk and a response he would contact maintenance. We left to go to a friend's home and stopped by the front desk to remind him and he took notes. We never were able to have blinds opened and never received a shower curtain. Too bad! It was an impressive hotel. Everything else was great including very comfortable beds.

Stayed here a few weeks ago. I originally scheduled a two night stay, but called ahead of time to…read moreadd a night. They told me they couldn't add a night over the phone and told me to do it online. I attempted to do it online and when we arrived, they said they didn't see my additional night. When I asked if I could add a night now that I was there in person, they said they were booked out and didn't have any availability. I went online and reserved the extra night again and showed them in the front. They were then able to add the night to my stay. I was not only upset that they couldn't add a night over the phone (especially because after the fact, when I was checking in, there was a staff member on the phone setting up a reservation for someone) like all hotels do, but to be told that they were fully booked when in fact they were not, made me feel unwelcome. The staff seemed to not know what they were doing, other than one man in the front, he seemed to be the only one who could answer our questions and get everything sorted out. He also gave us water bottles for free, which we appreciated. There was one night that we returned to our room and the door was propped open like someone had been in there. This was unsettling and we had to check the room to see if everything was still where we had left it, nothing had been placed in the room, and no one was in there that shouldn't have been. Note that if the parking lot up top is full, you'll need to park under the hotel in a parking garage that has signs posted about them not being responsible if your car or items are damaged. This was worrisome especially because the garage gave a sort of eerie vibe. The World Cup games were on and there were people at the bar watching the game. The food selection is slim. The restaurant itself is only open during certain times of the day. There was a man who was walking around our room window with a phone. This was extremely unsettling because I began to wonder if the windows are see through. You can see out of them, through the curtains when in the room, but I'm not sure if that applies to the outside view as well. I felt like my privacy wasn't protected. This was an interesting experience to say the least and I am saddened that our coastal trip had added unnecessary stress because of where we stayed.

We had some minor issues the first night but everything was quickly taken care of. Nice clean…read morecabins. Great location. Hosts were very nice.

Felton is stunning--majestic redwoods, peaceful river vibes... or so we thought. Unfortunately, the…read moreproperty owner had other plans. We arrived Mother's Day weekend hoping for serenity and got a front-row seat to her personal 40th birthday rave. The main river access? Taped off for her party from Friday to Sunday. The peaceful sounds of nature? Drowned out by a DJ and enough bass to rattle the trees from 5-9pm on Saturday. Other guests looked just as confused as we were. Things really peaked when our assigned parking spot was taken by a party guest after we came back from dinner, and the "emergency" contact basically said, "Good luck--there's a party going on." Nobody in the office, of course. The cabins themselves? Think sad summer camp meets thrift store chic--hot, musty, and uncomfortable, with a creaky bed and WiFi that gave up faster than we did. The location has so much potential, but, unfortunately is neglected by an owner who doesn't care about you or your stay. In fact, she passed by my family a few times and did not appear to be friendly. If you're looking for peace and nature, this place might deliver--just not when the owner's throwing herself a bash like it's Coachella.

Decided to stay here myself to see what's what. Wellstone Center in the Redwoods sounds like a…read morewriter's paradise, but buyer before - as others before have mentioned, it is assuredly not. (Check the filtered/hidden reviews.) Wellstone is marketed as a retreat center for aspiring writers, but it does indeed feel more like a shoddy youth hostel. The main house may have once been majestic, but it has fallen into a state of disrepair. The accommodations were poorly maintained and unsanitary, with ripped furniture, non-functioning lamps, and mildew in my bathroom. The grounds were in a sad state, with a filthy pool and unusable hot tub that had only a few inches of dirty water. The mattress was so old, uncomfortable, and sagging that I simply didn't sleep. The bedding had some unidentifiable stains that appeared to be fluids, which was quite concerning. When I brought it up with the hosts, they seemed completely unconcerned and dismissed me. The bath towels were old, scratchy, and smelled of mildew. As others have mentioned, the hosts request that you use cloth napkins - which is great, except that they do not wash theses napkins between meals. They instead instructed us to re-use other guests' napkins at subsequent meals, which is dangerously unhygienic. Reminder that I came here to write. It was a terrible place for me to write, in part because there's a loud family that lives in the house, and in part because there were no lights. That's right -- no lights bright enough to read by. A few mood lamps, nothing more. I am not a morning person and do most of my writing in the evenings. At sundown, I was forced to be done with all reading. It was too dark to read my book drafts, which I'd printed out; let alone any primary sources, books I was using for research. Unless you happen to bring a headlamp or a bevy of your favorite floor-lamps, you will also be out of luck. Make sure to read the other reviews that have been filtered out before you decide to apply for this "writing retreat." For me, it was neither a retreat nor a useful place to write. I wish I'd booked a hotel instead. You might want to consider the same.

Beautiful space to work as a writer. Peaceful, delicious food and invaluable feedback from fellow…read morewriters.

The goats have moved on to greener pastures and I'm ecstatic with the results! There is not a…read moresingle square inch of green less than 6 feet off the ground anywhere. We thought this would take a week but it took 3 days - those goats take their work seriously. The good: -Billie and the goats and dogs (and emu) are all delightful. Billie was extremely accommodating and hard working. The goats and dogs are absolute sweethearts and all come running when they see you for pets. -Poison oak is now extinct on my property. -The ground is fertilized and there is nothing to clean up other than sticks. The bad: -Noise. The "baaa"-ing was one thing, but the guard dogs were pretty brutal through the night. We had some coyotes hanging around so there was lots of barking. So that's it, thanks for following. I'm really happy to finally be able to present this and I'm actively brainstorming on how we can get a goat co-op going in our neighborhood.

Lost Emu Farms run by Billie was one of the best decisions we had made. She came out to the…read moreproperty promptly on time to meet with us for an estimate. Her assessment was spot on and we decided to go with her services. She was kind, compassionate, extremely thorough and just plain fun to be around. The result of her services left our property so much safer and useable. We are so grateful for Billie and will have to have her back sooner than later! Thank you again!!! To anyone in the market for her services, we have recommended her to all of our close friends, if appropriate for your needs, you will be beyond satisfied! Best value ever!!!