Great house to hang out, even in low season!

Guest: AGK (Boston, MA)
Date of Stay: 04/24/11 Review Submitted: 05/03/11

My new husband and 12 of our wedding party friends enjoyed three days at this house right after our wedding in Boston. We had a lovely time, found everything we needed and generally enjoyed ourselves! Great grill, all the cooking implements you could want, comfy beds, lovely linens, enough extra bedding etc because it was a bit cool. I bet this place is just out of this world in the summertime when it's hot. The patio and pool were dreamy and the setting so quiet and private. But then also just a short walk into town. My only caveat would be that the house wasn't really designed for 14 adults to sit down together either in the living room or dining room (though we totally managed!) It would be FABULOUS for a couple of families with kids - there is an additional TV/family room in the finished basement along with the four more kid-friendly bedrooms. The upstairs "grown ups" bedrooms were luxurious and gorgeous. That being said, everyone was very very very happy and I would absolutely recommend this property to anyone.

Recommended for:People with disabilities, girls getaway, families with young children, families with teenagers.

Misleading description and unresponsive owners

Guest: azw (Ohio)
Date of Stay: 07/31/10 Review Submitted: 10/27/10

We have stayed on the Cape for 20+ years and truly appreciate old charm. However, on Day 2 of our stay, we let the owner know we felt misled by the condition of the house. The pump/motor on the pool was broken, which we understood was unplanned and happens. But we were somewhat surprised by other issues with the house that could have been prevented. More specifically: - the screen in the screen door entering the first floor bedroom has a 3-4 inch rip - the screen in the screen door entering the dining room has a 6-8 inch rip - there are no door handles (on the inside or outside) for the door to the basement - the outdoor teak table was broken - two pieces of outdoor furniture were broken - the cabinet over the refrigerator was broken - the freezer door did not open all the way and the ice maker didn't work. We understand that this is a lived-in house and not everything is guaranteed to be perfect, but we have spent a considerable amount of time cleaning screening doors, scraping food and oil-drip pans so the outdoor grill can be used (we would have liked to use both grills, but we didn't want to have to clean both), trying to get rid of fruit flies from the kitchen compost that wasn't emptied and working around the issues listed above. In addition, we contacted the owner over 7 times inquiring about the return of our security deposit. Finally, when VRBO interceded on our behalf, the owner responded. It took approx 3 months to get our deposit back. I would not recommend this property to a friend or relative.

Owner response:We experienced a higher than normal rate of damage incidents at our house this summer. We try to keep on top of repairs, but it is not always possible to fix everything on a weekly basis. Our main problem this summer was that our regular maintenance staff did not discover or report these damage issues in a timely manner, thus leaving them for the next tenants to discover. We have replaced the maintenance company, and expect to be informed immediately when damage occurs so that we know which tenants were responsible. Here's our response to the specific issues raised in the Washburns' complaint: Someone (presumably a child) must have poked holes in the screen doors by repeatedly grasping them below the handle. Someone seemed to have wrenched the screen door handle off the door. We don't know how this was done. There was no broken table. We don't understand this one. We have a bottom drawer freezer. If the drawer is not properly closed it is possible for ice to form on the mechanism, causing it to seize up. This has occurred once in a previous year, and on both occasions as soon as we heard about the problem we immediately scheduled a service call, and the service tech promptly took care of the problem. Apparently the pool pump failed at around the same time as the freezer door problem occurred, and that also was replaced immediately. The pump was only a year old, and the pool maintenance company has returned it to the manufacturer. The fact that both things happened at the same time is pure coincidence. We regret that the Washburns found some things broken or damaged at our house. However, we don't find anything in this list that could have impaired or spoiled their vacation experience. Even the pool pump being out for 24 hours in no way affects quality of swimming n the pool.

Recommended for:

Spring Weekend

Guest: Gavin McCarthy (-)
Date of Stay: 04/23/10 Review Submitted: 05/08/10

Hi Alex, I just wanted to pass along our thanks for a great weekend. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. All the best. Cheers, -g

Recommended for: