The house itself is great. The water is not too close, but hey, that might be okay--it was for us! Besides, we could always use the exercise.
We got "most" of our deposit back, but this was after an extensive (two hour) brief from what I think was the cleaning people, but might have been the owner upon check in. We were so paranoid about keeping the house PERFECTLY clean that it became a running joke during the week. Sure enough, seven weeks later, we got the security deposit back, and there we were with 90 dollars missing.
The note mentioned it was for excessive trash (note, it was bagged and taken outside) and recycling (which was placed where we were told to put the recycling). In and of itself, this might have been okay. I am not sure how much trash costs to take away, but I can buy that, But the note went on to mention there was mold on the underside of the table cloth. What? Mold? We didn't even use the table outside...how could we possible have had any effect on the mold on the underneath of a tablecloth? Doesn't mold need a certain gestiaion period...maybe more than a week? What could we possibly have done to influence mold growth on an outside tablecloth? Also, there was mention that some of the outdoor furniture was broken, but it could not be proved that it was us. Fair enough--we didn't break any furniture, but the whole note was condescending. We were "granted" a leave from being charged for the furniture...based on what rules or basis I have no idea.
Bottom line; we paid a lot of money--4500 dollars--for a week at the house. Part of that is a cleaning deposit. While it is perfectly clear that the owners need to protect their investment, the rule book looks like a whole volume of the U S Code and reads like the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (lawyers joke)--it takes a lot of the "carefree" out of the vacation when you are worried about anything, even out of your control, happening which might offend the completely SUBJECTIVE views of the cleaning folks/owner.
Maybe the owners just need a new cleaning crew. Who knows.
Bottom line, it is a good house with plenty of space, a walk to the water...if you just go ahead and accept that you may not get a portion of the 500 dollars back based on third party claims about how you might have acted, you will enjoy it.
-Gray and Jasmine
P.s., I must mention that the owner was very nice--calling me and reminding me that I owed my full payment...he was very flexable