4BR/3 Bath Townhome in the Keystone Ski Area. Private hot tub. Walk to lifts.

We have confirmed what the guest said and sincerely regret this happened. When the weather turns cold overnight in October, field mice will sometimes try to enter homes and condo buildings for warmth, and occasionally one will expire inside. (Not an uncommon problem at 9000 feet elevation, but it only occurs in October). After this guest departed, we discovered that had happened in this property and immediately called an exterminator to resolve the problem. Carpet--First, the main living area has hardwood floors, so this was an issue on the 1st floor only. The problem was due to a recent snow storm that resulted in the previous group tracking in mud; they left 6 hours before this guest's group arrived so no way to clean that quickly and have the carpet dry in time). That doesn't happen from November through March, since the ground will be frozen by then. We clean the carpet, rugs, and bedding three times a year (early Nov.--before the busy ski season begins; Feb.--midway through ski season, and May--prior to the beginning of the much shorter summer season. A service like carpet cleaning is extremely expensive in a resort area ($400 per clean in a townhome), so this amounts to about $1,200/year on carpets alone. The timing of this guest's stay in mid-October, before the early Nov. carpet/bedding fall cleaning and following a storm, really accounts for what happened. (We certainly would have done a full carpet clean in this situation had there been more than a 6 hour window.)

We're glad this guest enjoyed the town home so much. The comment about the chlorine smell from the hot tub caught our attention immediately, since having a private hot tub right outside is one of the features that distinguishes this property from 99% of the rental units in the ski area. That spa is checked every 3 days (when renters are present) by a professional maintenance service. Their records indicated that it had been unrented for 12 days prior to this group's arrival, yet the water quality when tested on the morning of arrival was very poor. Since the tub is also checked after the last group's departure, this is an indication that non-guests (usually teens) are using the tub without permission. In this situation the service can't drain and refill with fresh water, since it takes about a day for the water to heat back up to 104 degrees and this group wouldn't be able to use the tub upon arrival (it was only a 2 day rental). The only alternative was to "shock" the water with chlorine, which then produced the strong smell the guest mentioned. To prevent a recurrence of this problem, we have decided to install a LOCK on the tub's insulation cover. Now the hot tub service can unlock the cover when inspecting on the day of arrival, knowing that the water will not have been fouled between rentals.