Our Thanksgiving stay for Anaheim

Guest: Robin (Elk Grove, CA US)
Date of Stay: 11/22/11 Review Submitted: 11/27/11

Our stay at this property was overall excellent! When we first arrived, there was fresh flowers waiting for us from the owner and everything was clean. The backyard is wonderful, complete with a nice bar, a very high tech fireplace, and my children enjoyed the playset very much. The hottub was great for both the adults and the kids, taking up much of our time just relaxing. Everything in the house from the kitchen to the living room was equipped with everything we needed for our Thanksgiving meal and we didn't have a problem finding anything. Not only was the house fantastic, but it is only a few blocks away from Disneyland which was convenient and perfect for our long stays at the park. When we decide to return to Anaheim for a second visit, this will definatly be our first choice.

Recommended for:Families with teenagers, romantic getaway, families with young children.

Large vacation home big enough for 12

Guest: Angee (Redding, CA)
Date of Stay: 10/15/11 Review Submitted: 10/25/11

We had a wonderful stay at this house, it was everything we thought it would be. With an extended family of 12 everyone had plenty of room to relax after a long day at Disneyland. The backyard was perfect for the kids to play, the built-in bbq and bar was great for the adults and with TV's almost everywhere no one missed their favorite TV programs at night. The kitchen was well furnished and plenty of linens and towels. It was very close to shopping and even closer to Disneyland. A perfect place to stay for a family vacation. Our family would definately stay here again!

Owner response:Thank you Jason and Angee, so gald you had a great stay in our home:) You are welcome back anytime

Recommended for:Families with teenagers, age 55+, families with young children.

Perfect location to take the stress out of traveling to Disneyland, and Knotts etc.

Guest: Lisa (Carver)
Date of Stay: 10/01/11 Review Submitted: 10/14/11

After sitting on the freeway for what felt like our entire vacation, we found our vacation rental. From the minute we entered, we felt welcomed, like we had always lived there. There was a warm and inviting feeling from the moment we arrived. The house certainly was furnished in very nice furniture, much nicer than in most rental homes. I was genuinely surprised by th quality and "quanity of various venues to sit and relax at. There appeared to be large flat screen tvs in every concievable space throughout the home, bedrooms, and even outside on the patio. I can't remember if the outside kitchen ( which is a gorgeous granite/marble kitchen/bar) had a tv as well. The swingset was perfect for our kids who believe it or not still had energy left to burn after spending the day at the Disney board walk. I truly enjoyed lounging in the hottub with our friends after the kids fell asleep. The house was clean,and well maintained, except for the coffee pot, plenty of linens, beautiful high thread bath sheets for each bathroom. One bathroom is right out of a magazine! It is a full rock, from floor to ceiling with both rain shower and hand held shower selection. As I am in a wheelchair, this was perfect for me. There is a seat built out of rocks as well that I was able to sit on to take my shower. I can't tell you how much I appreciated that. So many times we have rented only to find the bathroom has bars near the toliet and they call that handicap accessible. I would not only recommend this property to my family in a heartbeat, in fact,I would love to spend a holiday with my family here, it has that loving family feel the moment you arrive.So many attractions within a five mile radius. Disney, Knotts, shopping, the beach, all easy to get to. Restaurants galore! The photos do not do it justice, it is so much more!

Owner response:Also, we did get a new coffeepot:)

Recommended for:Girls getaway, families with teenagers, age 55+, people with disabilities, pet owners, sightseeing, families with young children.

Spacious, well equipted home in Anaheim, Ca.

Guest: Grandma Susie (Litchfield Park, Az)
Date of Stay: 10/09/11 Review Submitted: 10/13/11

Grandma, Grandpa, our son, his wife and our 4 Beautiful Grandchildren just spent 4 nights in this Great Home ...ONE MILE from Disneyland. It met ALL OUR NEEDS...and was perfect for our family of 8. the kids..ages 1,4,8, and 11 LOVED THE HOUSE...the yard..the spa..and having their own Bedroom with a TV of their own in it. We enjoyed all the space...and the LUSH GREEN FOLIAGE that surrounds this home. It is a quiet cul de sac street..with plenty of parking..and LOVED having our own fireworks from the Front yard. We loved it..It wasnt Brand new ...but it was a Great Ranch style home with Character. It was well stocked in the kitchen. Renting a home with children is the ONLY way to go....everyone has some space of their own. After a Long day at disneyland ..it was nice to come home to. Thank you Lori..for being so kind..and accessable if we needed you. Grandma Susie

Owner response:Thank you Susan and Family, So glad you enjoyed your stay.

Recommended for:Age 55+, families with young children.

Potential but not up to par

Guest: Norm (Burnaby BC)
Date of Stay: 08/04/11 Review Submitted: 09/15/11

Unfortunately I booked this home before all the reviews were posted. The property manager assured me that all was being looked at and the previous reviews were of a over reaction and poor communication. When we arrived I learned from the property owner the property manager was let go. It was nice for her to call and welcome us. I truly believe in time she will get things organized in this house one day. When we arrived I did call her as there was not much towels for us ( party of 8) but later I found more in laundry room. Existing towels were well used and should of been discarded. She brought brand new ones right away. There was a lot of missing pots and 1 roll of paper towel in kitchen. She brought those as well when I talked to her. The maintenance of the home is very poor unfortunately. Previous reviews are accurate I regret to say. We had guests join us for dinner so we washed down all the patio furniture ourselves as it was very badly in need of cleaning. I did call the owner who did advise her cleaner did clean them but I did tell her that they did a poor job. The childrens play area I didnt let the kids use as it was very dirty and full of cobwebs despite my best effort to wash and hose it down. The closets in the rooms are very stale and need painting and not useable except one closet in main bedroom. Hangers in closet are leftovers one would find from drycleaning. The best thing is the outdoor area for BBQ which we did unfortunatly had to clean the grill and clean and scrub the outdoor fridge as well. Once cleaned we did enjoy the outdoor facilities. Unfortunatly this home does badly need TLC and in time I believe Lori (owner) will sort out the state of the home. Unfortunately we paid 5 star pricing when the home is currently in 2-3 star condition. We did enjoy watching the fireworks from the front yard. Also we bought our own paper plates and plastic cups and left the extras behind for the next guest as the calcium in the water is bad in that particular area so all the dishes and cups had spots. I do not believe the house accomodates 10-12 comfortably as there is not enough beds unless one wants to sleep on the couch. There is only 1 live TV with signal in home and 1 outdoor tv. The other TV's have no cable hooked up. Location is great to get to Disney. I have stayed in many homes with VRBO so I was a little disappointed with this stay. I wish the best to the owner and hopes she will address the home asap for future guests.

Recommended for:

Nicely furnished, poorly maintained

Guest: AN (Houston, TX)
Date of Stay: 08/11/11 Review Submitted: 09/01/11

Despite previous poor reviews, my family and I truly hoped that we would be the exception rather than the rule regarding the state of the home. The VBRO liaison as well as the owner herself assured both my husband and brother-in-law who called on separate occasions that the poor reviews were from people who nitpicked at the little things. Unfortunately, those reviews were spot on. It actually is a very beautiful home that I’m sure was pristine long ago. Now the home is sadly falling to neglect. Upon arrival, we observed that the linens weren’t washed, the carpets weren’t vacuumed, and the floors were barely swept much less mopped. We couldn’t sweep or mop if we wanted to because there wasn’t any broom or mop handy, and really, should we need to? The carpets were filthy, the area rug in the living room had a lot of stains, the mattresses in the kids room were lumpy and probably 10+ years old. You couldn’t climb up the ladder of the bunk bed without the stairs emitting a popping noise. You could feel every spring in the pullout trundle mattress. There were spiders everywhere, the refrigerator icemaker and water dispenser didn’t work (they left a note informing us of this – it should have been fixed instead) and neither did the toaster oven. The dishwasher had mildew stains, and the lovely travertine restroom’s shower curtain was stiff because it used metallic rings on a metal pole and it had to be pulled open and closed ring by ring. Even though they knew ahead of time there were 3 small children coming to the home, they didn’t bother cleaning the cobwebs off of the backyard playground or the outdoor kitchen. Just FYI, the house seems to be built on a platform because it’s definitely hollow beneath the floors. You could hear every footstep whether you walked on the wooden floors or the carpeting. I’m sorry, but the negatives far outweighed any positives. True, we could have called during our visit. However, it’s one thing to call for replacement light bulbs or a hot tub repair. It’s another thing when most of the issues we encountered were due to poor maintenance left unaddressed over time. This is our vacation that should be spent enjoying ourselves – not trying to get the carpets shampooed or the mattresses replaced. This isn’t the case of someone being picky. This is common sense hospitality. To be perfectly honest, if I had any sense that the house was in this state I would’ve stayed at a hotel instead.

Recommended for:

Nice home, maintenance needed.

Guest: nancy (Granite Bay)
Date of Stay: 07/02/11 Review Submitted: 07/27/11

It's a nice home, good location. However, poor manage and maintenance, dishes dirty, kitchen matte torn, dirty, no trash liner in any trash can, wood floor trim between kitchen and dinning should be fixed, sheets,comforters seem dirty, we have to use our sleeping bags. Light bulbs on the side of the house and outside at palapa burned out. I have to change the light bulb in the dining room myself. We try to used the hot tub but it seem dirty and only 1 jet working so we didn't bother and turned it off. Anyway, for the price the owner charged, it should have better maintenance and care for this beautiful home.

Recommended for:Families with teenagers.

Nice home but poor maintenance

Guest: K (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada)
Date of Stay: 02/23/11 Review Submitted: 06/22/11

The home did have a good location and a nice yard and furniture. However, it was not as clean as it should have been. As previously mentioned in other comments, the dishes were not very clean. Because of this we used paper plates and plastic cups and utensils instead. The hot tub did not work the first day we got there, and the owner had to have someone in to repair it. The owner was very good about getting this done; however we received no refund for the lost time in the hot tub that we paid for. In addition, the hot tub took forever to get warm enough for us to use when it did work, and was very dirty. In fact, upon arriving home, three of the six people who stayed at the house got a terrible rash from the hot tub (diagnosed as a hot tub rash by several different doctors). The owner was very quickly notified that the hot tub had caused three people to get a rash, as we did not want any other family to have to deal with this. She said they were going to look into it immediately and get back to us, as we had asked for some monetary compensation because of this and the lost time due to repair. We never heard from her again. I had no intention of posting this information in a review, as I assumed the owner was serious when she said she was going to take care of it. However, I have just revisited the site for the first time in several months, and to my dismay I see that the people who stayed there after us had to deal with this disgusting hot tub as well. Obviously the owners did not follow up on their promise to take care of the situation immediately. As I said, the house was nice and had a good location, but until the owners hire a better cleaning staff to come between visitors and decide to clean the hot tub regularly, I would not recommend staying here.

Recommended for:

Great Vacation

Guest: Bells (North Cali)
Date of Stay: 05/27/11 Review Submitted: 06/22/11

My family and friends have stayed at this home. It was beautiful. It was very spacious with plenty of room for the kids to sleep and a large backyard to play. The backyard really made it seem like we were in a tropical place. We had a very pleasant experience and would definitley stay again.

Recommended for:Girls getaway, families with teenagers, romantic getaway, age 55+, people with disabilities, pet owners, sightseeing, families with young children.

Great location needs improvement

Guest: amj (fairmont hot springs)
Date of Stay: 03/20/11 Review Submitted: 06/20/11

We stayed here in March we found the same as the previous persons comment we could not use the hot tub as the pump was making a ridiculous loud noise, the bbq was not working properly, the diswasher was so blocked up with gunk we didnt use it. This place needs some TLC , I have used a lot of VRBO places and it was not the best one i have been to. I have to admit i was a bit dissapointed.

Recommended for:Families with teenagers, age 55+, pet owners.