Overall this house was a mixed bag - great size, layout, and location, but the little details were missing to make it a great stay. Communication was hit and miss. Sometimes they got back to me within minutes, but sometimes they didn’t respond at all. The house was a great size for the 13 of us (11 adults, 2 kids) and is was wonderful for everyone to have their own space and bathroom. The downstairs had a nice big kitchen and living room which allowed us to be all together, but not on top of each other. The pool was clean and came with a few toys which was nice.
However, there were some negatives that took away from our stay. Although the house looked clean on the surface, there was a bunch of hair and grime inside many of the bathroom drawers, The kitchen table was caked with some sort of dried on food that took a good scrubbing to get up, and a few of the bathroom towels were stained a yellow color. The cleaners missed putting towels in one bathroom and putting soap in at least two, however the hosts resolve these issues as soon as we let them know. The cloth dining room chairs were stained and ripped and the patio chairs were torn up as well.
One thing that particularly bothered us was that we asked ahead of time if they had cookie sheets, pots, and pans, and they answered yes. However, there were no cookie sheets and there was only one pan that was warped. We ended up having to go purchase those items to cook our food.
There was also no thermostat to adjust the house temperature, something I’ve never encountered in a rental before. If we’re paying for the entire house, we should be able to control the temps to our comfort level (even if it can’t go below a certain number, we should have some say). The neighborhood was loud and we had to ask our neighbors to quiet down at 4 am, but that’s not the hosts fault.
Overall we would stay there again, but there are definitely things that the hosts need to work on to make it a five star stay.