We had a great time with our stay. The outside setup is great and the inside was clean. We had a great time, it could not have been better except one minor and one major concern. Both concerns have been raised, but I want to stress that the latter concern is probably a deal breaker for me ever staying at this location again.
Minor Concern:
As noted in the other reviews, there were some fruit flies (others called them gnats, but that is inaccurate). This is going to be hard for the owner to correct, when it is likely that the population explosions are tied to the behaviors of the ephemeral tenants. There was some evidence that they were tied to the sink, but it could be that they need a tight fitting trash can lid rather than a “drawer” trash can to mitigate the problem.
Major Concern:
There are other complaints about this, so it will not be new. The hosts behavior and over-the-top implementation of quiet time detracts significantly from staying at the house. We were having a get together of 11 people. A grandfather, his two adult kids and their spouses, and his six grandchildren. The grandfather is a retired clergyman, and the adults are professors and teachers. The grandchildren are between 12 and 17 years old. We all own houses and would be respectful of the neighbors in our houses and treat the neighbors there the same. We understand that there have been problems, and we understand why the owners are concerned. If they said no one in the pool after 9:00 and be quiet after 9:00 as any adult would understand, we would have followed that to the letter of the rules, but a grandfather talking quietly to his adult kids and their spouses after 9:00 would not raise the ire of the neighbors. That being said, it obviously triggered some sound sensor that followed with a series of automated messages threatening $500 charges. It was also clear that this sound sensor is in the outdoor living room area because if you make the same amount of minimal noise around the hot tub, there were no equivalent messages demanding you go inside immediately with fines. To make matters worse, these messages started arriving at 8:46 pm… that’s not even 9:00 pm…
I understand they have had problems with noise, the police, the neighbors, etc. They have decidedly overreacted to these concerns with an automated, poorly calibrated, and offensive/aggressive system to try and maintain the peace with their neighbors. Here’s my recommendation. If they don’t dial their system down to a reasonable level, I would avoid this otherwise wonderful and perfect setup. It’s supposed to be for relaxing and enjoying time with people you care about. Instead 8:46 pm (23 minutes after sunset) comes and you are treated like you belong in a child’s sleep-away camp. The owners need to put the time and energy they spent making this wonderful oasis into calibrating/assessing the real potential for noise issues. Right now, they have a bad system in place and it nearly ruined the stay…