Overall we enjoyed our stay, and would recommend it, but there are some things we wanted to point out.
The good: The location is perfect. Check in was easy and seamless. It’s got an ocean view from the driveway, and is extremely close to the wharf, beach, and town. The rental was beautiful and clean, and the neighbours were quiet and friendly. The air conditioning worked great, and overall it’s a beautiful location to stay. Sarah was friendly and great at responding in a timely manner. They had a fire pit, and a deck to socialize on, which was nice.
The not so good: The first bedroom has a laundry room attached to it, and that’s where the water pump is. Every single time someone turned on any tap in the house, the water pump would start up, and it’s EXTREMELY loud and disrupting. We were sleeping in that room, and my son would wake up whenever someone so much as washed their hands in the bathroom. Shutting the door to the laundry room did not help. We could also not use any tap in the house when laundry was going. My mom was in the shower and I decided to put a load of laundry on. She immediately lost all water pressure, and we had to turn off the washer so she could finish her shower. We could not run any taps when the washer was on, because there was no pressure at all. This was not explained before staying and there were no signs explaining any of this at the rental.
The rental is very bare bones compared to other rentals in the area we’ve stayed at. They have a ton of storage space in the laundry room where they could put cleaning supplies, extra towels, board games, beach toys etc, but the shelves are empty. This of course is not a requirement, but seeing little touches like that while staying at a beach house is always nice, and usually included. It wouldn’t take much to source some second hand items to stock the shelves with. The fire extinguisher in the laundry room looks like it was spray painted over white when they painted the walls, so I would be concerned about functionality. I mentioned the empty storage shelves and lack of supplies to Sarah and she said that it was a new rental, so they didn’t have a lot in it yet. She also mentioned that the cleaners were supposed to be stocking the shelves. She has several other rentals though, so this seems like an odd oversight. It just felt like they renovated the house quickly to get it rented out, without taking care to consider guest experience.
We were only given ONE towel per person. There were no spare towels anywhere in the rental. Those of us with long hair require two towels for a shower, and we had to use our beach towels. We were asked to wash the dishes before leaving, but there were no drying dish cloths to wash by hand, and no dishwasher tabs. I messaged the host and she again apologized and said she would talk to the cleaners.
There was a major power outage during our stay, two nights in a row. This was NOT the host’s fault at all, but there were no flashlights or battery operated lights available to use during this time. I messaged the host about it, and she apologized, but did not offer to have any brought over. In total, around 5 hours of our stay was without power or lights. We used our phone lights until our phones died, then ended up borrowing a flashlight from someone else, but it would be nice if it was supplied. We were travelling with my 89 year old grandmother, and not having adequate supplies for an emergency outage was worrisome.
Overall, it is a beautiful location, but needs a bit more care and effort put into it for future guests. If you aren’t traveling with children, won’t be at the rental much, or don’t need to use the first bedroom, the loud water pump might be tolerable. Sarah was extremely friendly and great to work with, but did not have solutions for the couple of issues we contacted her for. For the price we paid, it just wasn’t quite the experience we were expecting.