I'd just like to preface this review by saying I have never left a bad review on airbnb - I'd rate all my stays as 4 or 5 stars because they met my expectations based on the value and quality of the house relative to what was promised.
I'd also like to say that the location is 5 stars - the proximity to Anini beach is wonderful.
So here's my review: I was very disappointed by my stay with Vacasa at this house and I want to emphasize it's because there was such a huge mismatch between the nightly price of the house and the quality of the house itself. With Vacasa and airbnb fees, we paid $825 (!) per night for this house. I expected a charming, well appointed and posh little beach cottage. What we experienced was much different.
We arrived and the lawn looked like it hadn't been taken care of in months. There were piles of dead leaves and overgrown grass and it just looked unkempt and dirty. There was much disrepair in the house itself - the blinds in the kitchen were completely broken and they looked out over garbage cans and into the neighboring house so we had no privacy. There were nice windows in the living room of the house but they looked over a yard filled with dead leaves and overgrown grass. The lawn chairs were filthy. The house was much darker than it appears in the photos. While I'm definitely not an AC person (I prefer open windows and a cool breeze), the air circulation in this house was terrible so it was hard to get any fresh air and it got quite hot.
Other things: There was one sad little ice cube tray in the freezer. There was chipped paint everywhere. The very cheap shower curtain was falling off the rail and the shower flooded into the bathroom every time we used it, soaking all of the bathmats. The glass in the master shower was caked with dirt. There was dirt and dust on some of the walls. Finally some of the snorkel gear was broken.
I reported all of this to Vacasa our first night there. I couldn't believe that with the exorbitant fees we were paying them, that they couldn't even properly maintain the house. As a result, they sent someone to the house to take a look and they clearly agreed with our assessment because they started sending maintenance workers to the house - while we were still there! We were awoken at 8am to a yard crew complete with lawn mowers and leaf blowers, completely ruining our morning in bed with the noise and the gas smell. Someone came to try to fix the shower but it was a bad time for us to deal with workers in the house. I appreciate that they tried to help but really this work should have been done months ago and certainly not during our stay.
Again, if this house cost half as much per night I would probably have left a positive review because the location is lovely but we stayed at a 5 star hotel in Kauai for the same amount of money and it was 10000% more beautiful and well maintained than this place. Worth every penny.
My advice to Vacasa is to stop ripping off your customers and spend some of that money we're shelling over to actually enhance the consumer experience. Based on this experience I will NEVER stay at a Vacasa managed airbnb ever again.