So ... I wish I could post pictures here. 1st of all, the driveway is TERRIBLE!! It is not paved and there are several "holes" in the dirt on the way up. It took 3 tries before I was finally able to gun it up the hill to the house. 2nd, the property is unkempt ; the grass needs to be mowed, there was a huge hornet's nest on the side of the house, and a broken TV in the yard. In the house, there is no air on the 2nd floor so despite the ceiling fan the te.temperature stayed in the 80s. A sheet is being used as a curtain, the dishwasher is broken, the mattresses have plastic on them and were uncomfortable and none of the remotes worked to access the electronics so we had to go buy batteries .
As advertised, we went to check out the pool at the community center. But, you need badges to get in and the owner only left 3. He tells me to call him when we get there and he'll try to resolve the issue ... if not we can pay $5 per person to get in. (Why should I have to pay when he's advertising it for free use?). We get to the pool and I find out the owner hasn't paid his owner's fees, so technically we can't use the pool anyway. Luckily, the woman there was very nice and said she wouldn't turn away the kids.
As his advertisement, we straightened up when we left and washed the dishes by hand (remember the dishwasher is broken), and he text me at 11:30 (check out is 11), and asked me to leave a tip for the cleaner. I kindly replied that we had left already as checkout was 11 and no, I will not leave a tip because I have already paid a cleaning fee included in my rate. I have used Home Away several times and this was the 1st disappointment.