The Carriage House is a beautiful little cottage in a very nice part of town. Poor management by Vacasa Washington, though, really detracted from our experience. .
The owners have clearly put a lot of thought and love into the place, with elegant, upscale features, in perfect synch with the neighborhood’s stately homes and mature, landscaped yards. There is a nice mix of coffee shops, fine dining, and boutique shopping within easy walking distance. There’s also a stunning view of the downtown skyline, fronted by the iconic Space Needle, from the top of Kerry Park, a block away. (Well worth a visit after dark!)
Unfortunately, our stsy was marred by several unnecessary hospitality stumbles. We had a snafu early on with an incorrect email address, so we never received the promised check-in email. After a few exchanges with Vacasa about it, they stopped responding to our requests for help. We eventually managed to sort it out with AirBnB directly, but we were very unimpressed with Vacasa’s unhelpfulness.
We visited in November, and found the place a chilly 57 degrees F inside, according to the thermostat. We turned up the heat to 68 and waited for it to warm up. Nothing. We left our coats on for an hour, then went to bed cold, and fully clothed. The next morning we discovered that the electric wall heater in the living room area had to be physically switched on for the thermostat to control it. We learned this by playing around with it, as there were no instructions provided.
Heating issue resolved, we turned to the Important task of coffee production. We use a Keurig coffee machine regularly at work, so we know how they are supposed to operate. The Keurig in the Carriage House was non-functional. The heating element appeared to be shot, so the machine struggled to produce anything. With enough patience and repeated coaxing, we managed to get a few almost-warm cups of weak-ass brew that smelled a little bit like coffee, but tasted more like tea. The coffee maker needs to be serviced or replaced. (FYI -the nearest real coffee is at the Top Pot donut shop, a block and a half away.)
Next order of morning business was showering. There were 3 in our party, but we were provided one set of towels -a bath towel, hand towel, and wash cloth. We called AirBnB (since Vacasa was ghosting us on the chat, and we had no phone number for them) and requested more bath towels. AirBnB’s customer service rep reached out to Vacasa, and a while later a housekeeper dropped off 6 towels.
There were several hotel-sized shampoo bottles in the bathroom, but no bath soap or body gel. We used the pump bottle of hand soap from the bathroom sink for our showers.
The kitchenette was predictably spartan. We took turns using the single teaspoon to eat our morning yogurt. It occurred to us that a good rule of thumb might be to provide a full set of silverware for each guest. Another hospitality oversight by Vacasa.
The primary bed is a comfortable mattress on the floor of the loft, accessed by a ladder in the kitchen area. It worked well, but might be difficult for someone with mobility issues.

The couch folds out to a double bed. We found two sheets in the kitchen-area cabinet. One was a fitted double sheet, and the other a fitted twin. Half credit for that, I guess? There was a comforter for the fold-out on a shelf in the loft, and a pillow in a damp attic cabinet, also in the loft.
We found it odd that there was no binder of info on the amenities of the place, with basic stuff like the Wi-Fi password, how to use the heater, and which nearby restaurants the locals recommended. Most places provide something like that. Not here.
We really liked the house and the location. There were enough unforced errors by Vacasa, however, to convince us that we don’t want to rent from them again. If the Carriage House is under different management by the time you are considering it, you may be ok. If not, consider yourself warned.