This review is hard to write because there are many things to like about the house, its location, and amenities. So let's start with all the good things about this house. First off, it's a beautiful home and the view is quite nice. Hayden lake is such a relaxing destination, and this place does a great job making the most of a lake house. The furnishing are good and most everything worked with the occasional exception but nothing out of the ordinary that we haven't experienced elsewhere.
So, there were two major setbacks that would prevent us from ever renting this house again in the summer, and the first is the air conditioning, or the lack thereof! This house very incorrectly claims to have air conditioning and I'm sure there may very well be one hooked up somewhere but it most certainly does not work and this house is a sweatbox! For example, on Wednesday, August 11th, 2021 it was 95 degrees in Hayden. The main floor with the kitchen and master bedroom were 88 degrees at 10 PM at night (top floor was in the 90s) - would love for the owner to claim otherwise - we have video / photos to document this mess. Not sure about most people but we cannot sleep when it is this warm and it is completely unethical to charge the price per night for a place like this without air conditioning. This SINGLE, important item ruined our trip as everyone was quite tired and groggy all day due to the lack of sleep.
The other major issue we had is that the owners had a construction crew working full steam in the basement. Yes, you read that correctly, a full construction crew who were loud, noise blaring of power tools, and the crew used a lot of foul language, which is not appreciated when you have a house full of kids. To be fair to VRBO/Vacasa, they contacted the owners to let them know they were not allowed to have a construction crew there when people were paying full premium prices for a summer lake home rental. What was particularly disturbing about this "oversight" is that the construction crew had keys to the house and came into the home from the basement when were were not there, ie., a huge security violation on many levels. Do they have COVID? Criminal background checks conducted since they are in the same structure as children? I mean, what are the owners thinking here? Anyway, VRBO/VACASA instructed the owners to keep the construction crew away for the rest of our trip.
Feeling like we are owed a partial refund for this one.