Fall Traveler

Guest: AC (Hampton Roads Virginia)
Date of Stay: 10/02/11 Review Submitted: 10/12/11

We have been staying in the outer banks during the fall for nearly 15 years, but 2 years ago decided to try a new place and boy are we glad we did. This has been our 2nd repeat stay at Casa De Duck and it gets better every season. My wife and I and 2 other couples love this house. It has a fantastic location in the heart of Duck, close enough to walk to town but at a very secluded private culdesac for peace and relaxation. The house is equipped with everything one could possibly need with the heated pool, the hot tub, an indoor sauna and gameroom. A nice upgrade this year was 6 new Wifi TV's and a free subscription to Netflix with access to 1000's of movies. We also enjoy the magnificent views from the deck each evening and each morning, what a great place to enjoy a cup of coffee watching the sunsets and sunrises and we were often get to see the dolphins feeding along the shoreline. The hosue is well maintained from season to season and always clean and linens provided when we arrive. We also like the one price inclusive rental. There are no extra fees for everything we need. The linens, towels, maid and pool service and accidental damage policy are all included upfront so there are no surprises. The private beach access makes for an easy evening stroll along the beach and the beach is plentiful and well maintained. We enjoyed our time there always look forward to returning the following year. We have already reserved our space for next year at Casa De Duck.

Recommended for:Families with teenagers, adventure seekers, sightseeing, tourists without a car, age 55+, girls getaway, families with young children, romantic getaway.

Denise (CT)

Guest: Den (CT)
Date of Stay: 07/24/11 Review Submitted: 09/09/11

In celebration of my "60th" birthday we stayed at Casa DeDuck from 7/24/11- 7/31/11 and it was a memory of a lifetime. There were 16 of us- 10 adults and 6 children (ages 2-14) and the house was perfect for both adults and children. There was ample room for everyone to either be together or have their own space. The pool was a lifesaver for the little ones, who after spending time making sand castles at the beach, wanted to go in calmer water of the pool. And the adults & older children loved riding the waves. The location was perfect to watch beautiful sunrises and also see a good part of the sunset on the bay side. And an additional bonus was watching the dolphins from the back deck (with a cup of coffee in hand) in the early morning. We rented bikes and kayaks from a place that was recommended by the owner- in which they delivered and picked up the rentals. I would highly recommend this house for large groups- whether couples or families. It had something for everyone

Recommended for:Families with teenagers, sightseeing, age 55+, girls getaway, families with young children, romantic getaway.

What a vacation

Guest: Friend (Richmond, VA )
Date of Stay: 06/12/11 Review Submitted: 09/08/11

This is our second return trip to this beautiful home. We have rented 1 week each year and had a wonderful time. Each year we return to find a number of improvements made during each winter season. It has all the amenities for all ages including basketball and volleyball courts for the kids a sauna, hot tub and pool and gameroom for the adults. It is very spacious and decorated nicely and very private at the end of the cul de sac. The view is to die for and we will be returning next year. The owner has always been very attentive to any needs we may have and they have a maintenance person to address any concerns we have had. Cant wait til 2012.

Recommended for:Families with teenagers, adventure seekers, sightseeing, age 55+, girls getaway, families with young children, romantic getaway.

dirty and Dishonnest

Guest: Kevin Leszczynski (philadelphia pa area)
Date of Stay: 05/15/11 Review Submitted: 09/06/11

We rented this property in May 2011. I found contacting the owner pror to arrival difficult Upon arrival we found the Kithen a mess .Everything was just thrown into cabinets or drwaers with no rime or reason. There was garbge and bottles in trash cans on the upper deck which we had to remove. The cable system was not operarting and after several attempts to reach the owner we were told there was a problem with the system and the company had to reboot the system. The cable service in the bedrooms did not work for the entire stay. In preparation for departure we vacumes the house and cleaned every glass dis and pot int e kitchen and then organized every cabinet and drawer. Wealso removed all linnes and located them on the first level for easy pick up. To date we have made 8 calls to the owner regarding the return of our Security Deposit , none have beeen returned and we have not received our refund I would never recomend this home or the ownera to anyone else

Owner response:Upon check in we are able to be contacted at anytime and guests are given two cell phone numbers, email address and a local maintenance contact for the maintenance man that lives only a few miles from the house. During this guests stay, charter cable was having problems with their High Definition transmission reaching their customers. Out of the 13 TV's in the house, 6 have high definition boxes and these TVs were not coming in due to the problem at Charter. Unfortunately Charter is the only choice for cable on the Outer Banks and their service response time is not the greatest. The house is also completely spring cleaned in April every year as well as professionally cleaned weekly between rental guests. As far as addressing a security deposit issue, the guests must have misunderstood the lease beacause we have not charged a security deposit in over 3 years. Security deposits in general have become obsolete, instead an insurance policy is purchased from the rental amount that has already been paid and it covers any damage to the house without any bother to the guests. Just about all the rental companies and private owners follow this process.

Recommended for:

BEWARE!

Guest: Lanie (Annapolis)
Date of Stay: 07/03/11 Review Submitted: 07/28/11

Beware! This home is lovely and it is a wonderful vacation home. However, while spending a recent week there we lost all water to the house for an entire afternoon (about 6 hours). This means no flushing toilets, no showers, no drinking water, no cooking, etc. We called the owner after some initial troubleshooting. After waiting for about an hour we did receive a text message from the owner stating that the "city shut the water off because of a water leak under the driveway". After several more text messages/phone calls and still no water I investigated the problem myself and called the city. I found out the real story! Because the owner had not paid his water bill the City of Duck intentionally shut the water off to the house. We finally got water when the owner paid by credit card to "restart" the water. I understand that things can go wrong when renting a vacation home but this was an "avoidable" situation which should not have happened. We also had to put up with "brown water" for 1.5 days after this incident. That same day we also texted the owner to inform him that the fire alarms (3) were beeping and that someone needed to come out and replace the batteries. I was assured that the "maintenance man" would come by. That maintenance man never showed up and we had to purchase and replace the batteries ourselves. This was a fire hazard. Again, this is a lovely home but I would beware.

Owner response:It is misfortunate that the above incident happened but was not explained correctly in this review. Upon contact from the guest we immediately called the water department to find the root of the problem. The problem arose from a underground leak during the previous 2 month water bill cycle that resulted in a water bill of over 2600.00. Having realized from previous seasons that this could not be the case we called the water department to investigate and found that there had been a leak. The adjusted and pro rated our bill to an average of the last 3 water bills and reduced the bill to 676.00 which was more of our normal water bill. They asked us to pay this amount and they would adjust the bill accordingly to take care of the incorrect bill. All this happened two months prior to this guests arrival. The water department failed to adjust the water bill to correct it after we paid the 676.00 so when the next bill was produced it looked like we had a past due balance and it was scheduled for cut off. The county mistakingly shut off the water and upon our call sent someone out to immediately restore the service. It is very unfortunate that this happen during a guest stay, but was an unavoidable mistake on the counties part and was corrected immediately upon notification. We are available by cell phone, email, texting and also have a local maintenance maintenance person who lives a few miles from the house and reponds immediately when called. He introduces himself to the guests during check in days and gives them a local contact number to call with any problems whatsoever. He has been with us for 2 seasons and we have had nothing but compliments about his personality and his responsiveness.

Recommended for:

A happy seventieth birthday.

Guest: Northville (North Fork Long Island, NY)
Date of Stay: 04/23/11 Review Submitted: 05/17/11

We gathered at Casa Duck to celebrate my husband's 70th birthday. There were fourteen of us ages 2-70 and everyone was pleased with the experience. The house was big enough to gather all together as well as escape for quiet and privacy. The house was well equipped, although we needed to buy beach chairs and umbrellas. The views from every window and the numerous decks brought the beautiful outside, in. WE could walk to town and took advantage of the bike rentals and shopping on cloudy days. A guide to when garbage was picked up and therecycling schedule would have been helpful. The owners were accomodating in trying to resolve the broken pool heater. The owners also made special arrangemens for our family to get in the house a day early, so that we could be settled for Easter Sunday. We recommend this property and hope to return some day.

Recommended for:Families with teenagers, sightseeing, tourists without a car, girls getaway, families with young children, romantic getaway.