Through Vacasa, we rented a 3-bedroom lakeview home in Tahoe for Christmas 2015 (http://www.tripadvisor.com/VacationRentalReview-g33156-d7165162-Three_bedroom_lakeview_home_w_loft_deck_gas_grill-Tahoe_Vista_Lake_Tahoe_California_Cal.html).
The experience turned out to be a total nightmare. This rental basically ruined all our plans to relax for 4 days: due to Vacasa's lack of due dilligence & professionalism, we had to get back to San Francisco and give up on our vacation plans:
- We received an e-mail the morning of our arrival saying early check-in was not possible as the house was to be cleaned that day. Cleaning team onsite? Obviously, not: when we arrived at the property, the quantity of snow clearly indicated that no one entered the house recently.
- We had to shovel the driveway manually, as there was absolutely no parking spot. We also had to do the same to be able to enter the house and unload the car.
- Entering the house, we soon realized that it had not been cleaned after the last occupants left: bed linens and bathroom towels had not been changed, kitchen sink and oven were dirty, not to mention that the toilet had not been flushed in one of the bathrooms!!!
- But that was the least of the issues. The main one being that the heating system proved to be totally inefficient! 2 hours after we turned it on, we couldn’t reach a temperature higher than 51. Not really our definition of comfort. Especially with 2 kids and a Senior person.
- We then tried to make some fire in the fireplace. Soon, the dining room got full of smoke and we had to give up. We tried to open the patio doors to force air circulation, but it was not possible, as they were all s****.>
- During all of this, of course, Vacasa failed to send someone on site to help us, and even failed to call us back (he had to call, and wait on-hold for 4-5 times).
- This led to us to notify Vacasa that we wouldn't stay in that house and were willing to cancel the rental. They accepted to refund 100% of the amount for the rental but this caused us to cancel our initial plans to stay for 4 nights in Tahoe, after we shopped for all the groceries, and firewood.
- Vacasa refused both to recognize the prejudice and to offer any compensation.
At the end, Vacasa:
- lied to us (pretending a cleaning team had been sent the day of our arrival);
- dared rent this house, without performing the minimal check required, which would have led you to the obvious conclusion that this house could not accommodate any guest at Winter time;
- did not act on former customers issuing the same type of comments about the home's cleanliness, one month before we rent it (https://www.vrbo.com/traveler/profiles/87987fa9-b7f1-4771-a998-b936efb608ad);
- refused to acknowledge and compensate the prejudice.
I guess the conclusions are pretty obvious: never rent this place and never do business with Vacasa.