We made these houses work for us but my experience with Sam was less than stellar. Sam has to be the most difficult host I have every worked with and these houses are just ok.
Pros:
- Check In and out were super easy. Doors are accessible by codes so that made it easy for everyone.
- The kitchens were really nice and large and the beds super comfy.
Cons:
- The houses feel a lot smaller than they appear on the listing. There is no way 33 people can comfortably stand, let alone sleep and have luggage in these houses. We had 10 people and had plenty space but 33 is way too many. There are rollaway beds in many of the closets but there is absolutely no floor space for the beds to go.
- Very few washcloths and towels were provided. Only about 3 washcloths were provided for our party of 10 and we definitely didn't have 15 towels. Our reservation was for 15 people.
- The paper towel roll in the kitchen was not full and no additional rolls were provided. We ran out of paper towels the first night and had to purchase our own for the rest of our stay.
- There were no dish towels provided so we had to be creative to wash dishes.
- I found a long blonde hair in my towel. No one in my party has long blonde hair. This made me question the cleanliness of the properties.
- The houses felt run down. There were a lot of areas that needed to have the paint touched up. The handle to one of the freezers was missing make it extremely difficult to access the freezer. Many of the lights in the bedrooms wouldn't come on. Some of the remotes for the ceiling fans were missing.
- There were bugs in both of the houses to include ROACHES, big ones.
- The houses are in the middle of nowhere in a neighborhood that doesn't match the houses. Having vehicles was required for us to get around. Ubers/Lyfts were $15-20 each way to get to any of the main attractions.
- Sam was extremely unaccommodating. 1. It's clear that he uses an automated responding system. I fully understand the need for hosts to automate, but the responses did not answer my questions. I had to ask things a few times to get answers. 2. Sam asked for a lot of details about our party but didn't appear to do anything with the information. He didn't even respond to my reply. 3. I considered extending my stay by a day or two. When I went online to do this I noticed that the price of the house was $1,000/night lower than when I booked. I looks like the price of the houses is doubled on the weekends. I fully understand that weekends cost more, but double is ridiculous and feels like robbery. Sam told me that the prices are calculated automatically by a computer system and he has no part in it. He also informed me that any changes are considered a cancelation and I would have to pay for the houses twice (once for the "cancelled" reservation and once for the new reservation). This is a terrible way to do business in my opinion. I was not canceling, but moving so being charged for a cancelation in unethical. 4. I asked if our event planner could come tour the properties to plan for decor. This request was denied and we were asked to not put up decor. (This is not listed anywhere in the posting and most events with large groups have some kind of decor requirements) 5. I asked for an early check-in because our flights landed pretty early and the posting says that check-in is flexible. This request was also denied.
Overall, we made it work but I would not stay here again and would not recommend this listing or this host to anyone.