The adorable Cactus Adobe is FANTASTIC. The house was exactly as pictured - clean, super cute, and comfortable. It's a warm happy house and we genuinely enjoyed our time there. The kitchen was well stocked and the backyard was even better than pictured - it's large, enclosed, and private. If it were warmer, it would have been a fabulous place to have dinner. The sun room was a lovely breakfast spot for us - super relaxing and perfect for watching our kids play in the backyard. Our kids had a blast taking turns riding or standing on the back of the tricycle, and learned to set up & play horseshoes.
The only thing that could use improvement was the shower. It's super tiny and there's no door/curtain. My husband felt like his face was against the wall when he showered. The shower head was too high for the rest of us & we had to use the hand held shower head, while trying not to get water onto the floor.
Despite the small shower, the place really is lovely. The home absolutely deserves its 4.7 star rating. We would have happily given it a 5 star rating, it it weren't for our booking experience. After we had already put down our deposit, we received a voicemail from Patricia saying that VRBO made an error & we owed them an additional $100+. Concerned this was a scam since Mike was the listed owner, we called VRBO. Home Away was awesome & said they don't see an error, no one had contacted them, AND they would pay for their error & we wouldn't be liable. I then sent a message to Mike via VRBO & realized that Patricia was their manager. After waiting and hearing nothing for almost a week, I called VRBO again, who said they would try contacting them again. The following day, Patricia replied that she had contacted VRBO, apologized for the misunderstanding, and that we didn't owe her anything else.
We were a little worried that they would take $ out of our deposit but today we received our full deposit. So, clearly this was all just a mistake. The listed VRBO manager has since been changed to Patricia (although Mike is still pictured), so I'm guessing this may have stemmed from a transition glitch.
It really is a nearly perfect place to stay for a family of 4 visiting Joshua Tree. We would absolutely recommend this wonderful house to others. Hopefully, they can continue to rent the Cactus Adobe with their historical stellar costumer service record.