I've stayed at plenty of Airbnbs, and this one hosted by Vacasa was by and far the worst experience we've had thus far. The house itself was fine, decently appointed and large enough for our group. I will say that the house is located on a really busy street and the street noise is pretty noticeable. Otherwise, the location is nice.
My main complaint is with regards to the rigidity of the check-in and the absolutely terrible experience I had with the customer service team. I booked the house for a trip to SD for my engagement party. We spent just over $2,000 for two nights. Certainly not a cheap stay.
A few days before check in, I noticed that the home was available according to the listing calendar. Hoping for an early check-in, I contacted Vacasa through the Airbnb app. After asking about an early check-in, I was given a canned response from a member of their team saying that early check-in was unavailable. Because the reply was given nearly instantly, I had assumed that they didn't even bother to check in with their cleaning team to understand when the home might be ready. I replied asking for more context, and this time was responded to by a different member of the team who seemingly didn't even bother to read my previous interaction with their teammate. Frustrated, I called into their phone line. The woman who spoke with me was short and incredibly rude when I pressed her to ask for a more thorough explanation as to why they simply couldn't try to negotiate an early check in with the internal team. When I asked to speak with a manager, I was disconnected (or hung up on). I called back, was given the same spiel by a different rep, asked to speak to a manager, who was unable to give a much better answer other than COVID changed their cleaning protocols (which still doesn't explain why they couldn't offer me an early check in when the house was being unrented for more than two days prior to my arrival) and "labor shortage" (which again didn't fully explain their inability to negotiate with me given the home's availability).
Really disappointed in this stay for what should have been a comfortable weekend during this special event in my life.