I’ve been both a renter and a vacation home owner for VRBO and AirBNB, and this is my first Vacasa experience on either platform. It will be my last. I have stayed in vacation rentals all over the world, including in some third world countries, and this was by far my worst experience to date.
The hot tub was not functioning when we arrived, and the water was green and murky. It took three days (of a five day stay) to get someone to come and fix it. I have requested a partial refund and heard nothing back on that. As a general rule, when a vacationer filters for a house with a hot tub, it’s a given that they would like the hot tub to be functioning when they arrive. It’s also a given that when someone goes on vacation, they don’t want to sit on the phone, whether on hold or talking to an unhelpful customer service person, for upwards of three hours rather than relaxing with their friends that they haven’t seen in two years because of a global pandemic. Needless to say, the first 36 hours of my experience were neither relaxing nor enjoyable because of this.
The customer service experience was abysmal. The person dealing with text exchanges was infuriatingly dismissive, the first person we called assured us someone would be there in the morning and then when no one came, we called again and the person said that there was never a ticket entered and was rude to my friend who was calling to follow up. Two of the five/six people I/we talked to were actually helpful. Everyone else was either rude, dismissive, or unhelpful. I also reported that the filtered water, both in the fridge and at the sink were only coming out in a drip. Two of the people I spoke to said they'd entered that into the system as a maintenance request, and that it would be delt with when the hot tub was fixed, but no one ever came to deal with that in any way.
Just about everything in the house was the absolute bottom of the barrel. The bunk beds in the bunk room were frighteningly rickety, and my friends were nervous to sleep on the top bunks. We ended up putting mattresses on the floor instead. No one over 80lbs should be on the top bunk, and it should be stated in the listing that this room is for small children only. The beds were wobbly, cheap, and the mattresses were just air and springs. Very uncomfortable. Also, the lock to the bathroom on the main floor wasn’t installed properly, so doesn’t lock, affording no privacy to the occupant of the bathroom. The blinds in the master bedroom also didn’t work and had to remain closed during our whole stay.
In the listing, the max occupancy of the house is 12 people with a five-day minimum stay this time of year. Vacasa notes that there’s a “starter amount” of laundry and dish detergent, dish soap, TP, garbage bags etc. I’m not exaggerating when I say that the bottle of dish soap was 3 inches tall and one inch wide and not full. It was comically small and comically inadequate. There were also 12 bath towels and 12 beach towels. So for a 5-day minimum stay in a house set for 12 people, everyone has to use one—and only one—bath towel, one—and only one—beach towel, unless they want to do laundry on their 5-day vacation, and likely go out and buy more laundry detergent. Not a single extra towel, wash cloth, hand towel, nothing. Not one spare. Heaven forbid someone spill something. One of the top floor bedrooms had two sheets on the bed, no comforter, no blanket, nothing in the closets — during ski season when it’s freezing outside. The other bed on the top floor was so uncomfortable that the person using that room ended up sleeping on the floor after waking up on the first morning unable to turn her head. She’s 35 years old and in great shape, so this isn’t a case of a high-maintenance person. The day bed on the bottom floor had a bottom sheet only, no top sheet, and when the bed from underneath was pulled out, the wheels fell off immediately.
I...