Shooting Star

Good
Traveller Type: Business Traveler
  : Excellent location with terrific view! Living areas very clean, beds comfortable and kitchen well-stocked. Decor lovely and great style, good vibe but has not had a full reno. Outdoor space is generous size. Hummingbirds and grapefruit tree. Laundry. Major downside during our stay was that the pool and hot-tub could not be used despite me calling the week prior to stay, speaking to the local property manager and being willing to pay the extra $72/day fee to heat. Heat didn't come on and then pool cleaner showed up for routine visit and said it was broken and he'd previously reported as requiring repair. Water temp at 39 degrees. No heat. No jets. Noisy equipment cutting in and out was annoying without any benefit. We'd paid a premium for a place with a pool. Several calls to the Vacasa hotline....answered by someone overseas who didn't know anything about the actual property and just a message taker and then needed to play phone tag with local prop manager (who was not available after 5 pm or on the weekend for non-emergencies). Owner has prepared a very detailed binder with all kinds of "how to" information. Great, but only if something is not actually broken and known to be in need of repair. I paid in full months in advance (average $800 per day) and got DOZENS of emails for various contracts and agreements that needed to be signed. That protects renter and the agency, but now I have to follow-up for how to be compensated for the lack of pool and some other service concerns which takes some of the fun out of a short and much-needed vacation.
  : Older home. Issues as noted above with pool. Toilet in master bath was not flushing well on last morning. Outdoor of home had some nails falling out near the pool deck. Dining chair vinyl upholstery is deteriorating, flaking and messy. The place seems to need a bit more regular maintenance and repairs that cannot just be cleaned, painted or decorated over. Some of the land-scaping is a bit rough (just dirt) and could benefit from better separation from neighbors (and two large barking dogs) with a nice fence. We also had a delay getting into the house as the check-in text only gave one of two codes needed and the local office had to search for information. Outdoor umbrella broken. Washing machine in garage leaked when washing sheets prior to departure. Issues with WiFi during stay. Internet kept cutting out and router had to be re-set multiple times over 2 days. DirectTV service had (related?) issues with connection and buffering. No premium channels like HBO/Showtime included. I purchased an HDMI cable and used my own computer and streaming service. Had to head to a coffee shop for a couple hours to get reliable service the first morning due to some critical work deadlines. I travel a lot and stay in a range of properties from small hotels to resorts to rental by owner so make the above comments hoping that they contribute to improvement. The Vacasa format was a lot of emails, texts and a 24/7 call center but really seemed a lot about "documenting" that they responded or logged a reported problem. The virtual format cannot do what a real person showing up regularly to check on the condition of the place could do in anticipating issues. I mean, I am the customer and here I am doing what a property manager should be doing.