Booked via the Marriott Homes & Villas site
After a 13-hour drive, we arrived at the property and upon entering were hit with an awful smell that I could only describe as something, or someone had died. As best as we could tell, something had died in the wall between the kitchen and living area. We opened the windows, despite sub-freezing temperatures, and tried our best to air it out. As we began moving our belongings into the various bedrooms, we noticed how absolutely filthy everything was. There were layers upon layers of dust behind furniture and on the ceiling fans, bizarre stains all over the carpets, what appeared to be food or blood spray on some of the walls, food crumbs under the beds, etc. etc. By this time, my mother was feeling nauseous (from the odor) and took a seat in the kitchen. I went to pour her a cup of water and upon turning the faucet on found that the water also had a putrid smell. My youngest daughter has allergies, and my mother has a rather severe heart condition - neither were doing well after only 30-45 minutes in the property. In totality, it became clear that we could not stay at the property. Despite our exhaustion and the late hour - I called Vacasa to report on what we had walked into and request that other accommodations be made. I will summarize what happened next:
- Contacted the number provided to report what we had walked into and ask for another property
- Person stated that they would send someone to inspect the property and get back to me
- After not hearing anything for some time, called back and the agent said their 'inspector' was in the condo and reported that nothing was wrong with the property
- Went back into the property and talked to the inspector, where he agreed that the property had a 'lot of issues', including a foul water smell and that nothing had been cleaned for quite some time. Stated that he could not smell the dead animal odor, but that it was probably because had a cold and stuffy nose. I would say that he appeared to confuse the dead animal smell with the water odor. The inspector seemed hesitant to admit that something had died in the property.
- Inspector was surprised that the agent I spoke to had told me that he said nothing was wrong
- Inspector said that he needed to wait for a manager to arrive
- Waited in the property with the inspector for a significant amount of time, while he kept saying his manager 'should be there at any minute'
- Again, we had driven over 13 hours, it was late and very cold (close to 0 degrees Fahrenheit). Had my two kids and mother waiting in the car this whole time and finally had to leave to find them something to eat
- Sent pictures of the property to the Vacasa agent via text, as requested by them
- While at dinner, the Vacasa agent stated they were working on a refund and would get back to me
- Not long afterwards, someone from Vacasa called me to say that their local manager had been to property and stated there was absolutely nothing wrong with the property and they would not be refunding any money
- Asked to speak to a manager, who was incredibly rude and restated the above. The manager stated that their policy is such that if the local manager says there is nothing wrong, then they do not provide refunds
- I told her that either the manager was lying or there was a breakdown in communication and asked that she provide the number for the local manager who had supposedly visited the property and deemed it perfectly fine. She refused, said I was not allowed to talk to the local manager and there was nothing more that could be done. She offered to refund cleaning fees only.
- At this point, it was late, extremely cold and I was sitting on the side of a road with no place to stay and a loss of $3,670
- Goes without saying that my daughters and mother were quite upset
- Called Vacasa back and while on the phone with them, the local manager (Kyle) called to talk about our issues with the Treehaus Lofted condo
- The manager stated that he understood that the property had a lot of issues, that it was not 'their greatest' property and would try to find something else for me. Given the hours of time trying to rectify the issue and my experience to date, I told him that my preference would be to get a refund so that I could go somewhere else. The manager stated that he did not have that authority - only Vacasa did and they had already refused to refund anything other than the nominal cleaning fee.
- We had no choice but to accept a move to a new property, which also had several issues, but nothing dead inside, so that was a plus...I guess
In the end, we decided to shorten our vacation and leave early.
Vacasa has refused to offer any refund and/or compensation. I paid $3600 for a few days in a disgusting property.
Do not, I repeat, do NOT rent anything from Vacasa. Beware that Marriott's Homes & Villas site uses Vacasa to manage some of their properties. My suggestion is to avoid both. read more