I will start with all the things we liked about this property.
The layout was perfect for us with the master bedroom ensuite, and formal dining and living area on one side of the house and two other bedrooms with a casual living and dining area on the other side of the house. Good for us as we were travelling with our pregnant daughter and her 1.5 year old son …who sometimes woke at 5 am. And we could block off the casual living room and make a cozy play area for him.
The lanai is the absolute best feature of the house with a lot of seating, nice heated pool, views of the canal system and passing boats. The surrounding garden was pretty and my husband loved fishing off the dock.
The kitchen was well equipped with the exception of no unbreakable ‘pool’ plates for outside dining (which we did every meal we could).
A nice kitchen feature was the amenity cupboard that had a collection of spices, oil, vinegars, flour etc. There was also some foil and plastic wrap which we appreciated.
And the host was very responsive when we had an issue with the water sprinklers waking us in the middle of the night. She addressed the issue and again when the gardener fixed the wrong sprinkler.
Unfortunately, we were surprised by some house condition issues . As we entered the house the fist thing we saw was three large rips in the living room carpet, two of which were partially covered by area carpets. The rips were unsightly and a hazard. On more than one occasion I caught myself tripping over the area carpets.
The sliding doors badly need to be serviced. The living room and casual living room doors were very difficult to slide open and closed.
Finally, we paid a cleaning fee as outlined in the rental agreement so we were surprised to be asked to wash all the towels and put them out for the next person at the end of our stay. We did do the wash as requested so instead of enjoying my last vacation day with my daughter and grand son I was doing laundry for the next renter. And when we were leaving the next morning, we couldn’t use any towels.
We paid a cleaning fee and the equivalent daily rate of a very nice nice hotel, so we think it is not too much to ask that the cleaner wash all the towels when they wash the sheets.
Overall, the carpet condition, difficult sliding doors and laundry expectations were not for us, even though we really enjoyed house layout, lanai, view and fishing.