4000 sqft House with Private Pool, Spa & Sauna, 10 mins to Del Mar beach

Hi, Natalie Thank you for being an awesome group of guests! I look forward to your next visit. Jane

Thank you for staying at our property. We appreciate your feedback and are very sorry you had a less than exceptional experience. The house was vacant for several weeks prior to your stay with closed windows. The house has good air circulation with the windows open and there is usually a slight ocean breeze in the neighborhood. With a couple of the larger windows open, any stale air should be refreshed in less than 5 minutes. Nonetheless, if there is a vacancy period in the future, we can keep the HVAC fan running periodically to keep the air fresh. There is a step from the foyer (with Spanish mission style red tiles) into the front/living room (with dark brown hardwood floor). On the pillar at the entryway, there is a sign to alert visitors to ‘watch their step’. Additionally, we have two nightlights in the vicinity of the step to illuminate it when dark. We will investigate additional lighting, caution marking, or other ways to increase the contrast between the top and bottom of the step.

Thank you for the wonderful 5 star review! We are so happy your group had such a wonderful time and we look forward to welcoming you back in the future! Next time, please don't hesitate to reach out if something is off. The patio heater can be tricky to light - usually you need to press the ignitor button 8-10 times before the pilot lights (you can see the pilot light through the metal channels at the bottom of the heater element to ensure it's lit).

Our goal is to ensure each of our guests has an exceptional experience during their time at the property. We strive to achieve this by fulfilling reasonable “pre-arrival” requests and responding quickly to any “during-stay” needs. To that end, we are deeply sorry for this guest’s experience. We receive a lot of bookings from families traveling with kids. As we are also a family with children, we understand the challenge of traveling with young children and want to help ease that burden whenever possible. At the property, we have a portable baby/toddler chair which can be attached to a dining table chair. Upon request of this guest, we also purchased a brand new standard size baby highchair free of charge. We maintain a close relationship with our pool maintenance and repair company which allows us to receive priority response should any concern arise during the stay of our guests. This company has always provided excellent service and proved highly reliable. For this booking, we began heating the pool one day early to meet this guest’s arrival request. As the pool is approximately 15,000 gallons, it takes significant energy and sufficient time to bring the water temperature to the set point of 84F. To make this process efficient, we use a pool cover which helps reduce heat loss and evaporation. The cover is attached to a portable, wheeled roller which sits on the pool deck. The cover can be easily rolled up and positioned out of the way. As heating continued, we noticed the water temperature was still far from reaching 84F. Suspecting inadequate flow through the pool filter, we dispatched our pool service technician to perform a filter service at a premium of over $100 compared to their standard fee, given the holiday week. The filter service was completed on December 27. Heating resumed and we contacted this guest to provide an update, explaining it may take more time for the pool temperature to reach the set point. Subsequently, this guest arrived that evening and asked about the typical time required for the spa to reach the maximum set point of 101F. Although the pool and spa use the same pump/heater system, the spa is separately controlled and heats up much faster than the pool. This guest further noted the spa failed to reach the set point. The heater is under warranty and we contacted the manufacture’s contractor the next morning. Owing to this contractor’s limited holiday availability, we decided to have our own pool technician perform any necessary repairs, along with any additional out-of-pocket expenses. After inspecting the heater on Saturday, a faulty stack flue sensor was identified. Unfortunately, the parts supplier is closed on the weekend and was also closed on Monday Jan 1 for the holiday. As such, the heater was returned to service around 8am on January 2. We have since purchased two additional stack flue sensors to have on-hand as backups. There was an unfortunate confluence of factors that occurred here including bad luck (mechanical equipment is prone to unpredictable failure) and bad timing (the weeks of Christmas and New Year holidays are likely the most challenging time of the year). We did everything to rectify the matter as soon as possible. That said, we understand this guest’s disappointment and are very grateful they chose to enjoy the spa during their remaining three days at the property (Jan 2-4). A refund of $500 was provided to this guest. There are three gas fireplaces in the house. Each is controlled with a standard gas fireplace key (looks like a screwdriver with a square hole in the end) which is labeled. These keys are either on the mantle or a nearby shelf to the fireplace. Each fireplace is straightforward to use by opening the flue, turning on the gas, and lighting with a match or lighter. Our guests are welcome to use the fireplaces as they desire and we're happy to assist in any way. Given the large space of the house, we find the central furnace systems (there are separate systems for downstairs and upstairs) do a much better job of heating the living areas.