This is going to be a long review since I know the homeowner will disagree with me. When we arrived at the house, everything was beautiful. We had a family of 10 adults, 3 teenager and 3 kids under 10 at the property. On the 2nd day, 4 of the kids were leaning on the tennis net when a 20 foot light pole fell and hit 1 of the children on the head, fracturing his school, causing a brain bleed and requiring helicopter transport to Rady's. On looking at the light poles, the base was completely rusted out both externally and internally. We immediately told the homeowner, who proceeded to say he would get it settled with insurance company, and that we could use the hot tub for free since the bball court was now covered in glass. We continued with the trip for 4 additional days avoiding the dangerous area. The homeowner seemed concerned and reasonable.
Upon leaving the house, however, the homeowner notified us he was keeping the security deposit due to "vandalism," unsupervised children and more guests over 7 than paid for. 1st, in what way is leaning on a tennis netting and a full light pole falling considered vandalism? It is clearly an unsafe situation and we have multiple pics backing us up.
As for unsupervised children, we had a group of adults directly across the courtyard from the basketball court where 2 teenagers were playing with 2 little kids. We had to be close since we were able to immediately run over and lift the fallen light pole off of the 9 year old's body.
The extra guests issue is also annoying. Due to the homeowners convoluted billing, we paid an extra fee per night per guest over the number 12. So we paid for 16 which is clearly shown on the bill. Afterword, he claims that we told him all children were under 7 (which apparently is his adult age) and didn't pay for them. Which is funny, since we did have 2 kids under 7 who both should have been free. Additionally, 3 people were staying in San Diego while a child was in the hospital for multiple nights. So in the end, we paid significantly more than we should have.
We tried to resolve the issue with Homeaway regarding our security deposit, however they claim that the homeowner can keep it by showing damage, irrespective of whether the damage is due to negligence on his part or vandalism.
So, if you have made it this far, I would be careful using Homeaway or this property owner. The house is beautiful but you may lose your deposit unjustly.