We really enjoyed the house, but our visit was marred by management failings that were, in our opinion, not addressed well.
Our party was my wife and me and our two elderly (80 and 92) mothers. I called the management company, Coastal Joe, at around 10am on our check in day. They told me that we could arrive any time, the house was ready. However, when we arrived around 5, the house had not been cleaned since the last guest had left. Beds were unmade, linens were dirty, dishes unwashed, fridge dirty, etc. The office was closed so we called the after hours line, and were told that they would contact housekeeping and get right back to us. After 20 minutes of no word, we tried calling back only to get voicemail...frustrating. With the house dirty, we had not unloaded our luggage or the food we had bought. Finally, after about 45 minutes, we got a text saying that housekeeping was on the way. We had intended to eat in that night, but decided to change plans and find dinner out. We arrived back around 8, right after the cleaners had left. The extra activity had exhausted the elderly moms, and we still had to unpack and unload the food that had been sitting in the hot car for hours. So, the problem was addressed, but we felt that the managers should have been more communicative as they searched for a housekeeping crew instead of letting us sit and wonder. Coastal Joe offered us a $100 credit for our trouble, which they never provided, and which I thought was insufficient.
Our second problem had to do with pool heat. I notified Coastal Joe that we would like the pool to be heated 5 days before our arrival, knowing that it takes a while for a pool to heat up. When we got to the house, the pool was cold, and it was after noon the next day before the pool heater was turned on. It took the rest of the day for the pool to heat, so we lost a day and a half of swim time. To their credit, Coastal Joe did not charge us their normal $300 for pool heat, but we felt that the heater should have been turned on before our arrival.
On checkout day, I dropped by the office to discuss the issues we had and request some amount of credit back for our trouble. I spoke to Scott, who did not have the authority to do anything, but he assured me that the lady who did was aware of our situation and would reach out to me in a day or two. That never happened. I sent two emails to Coastal Joe after we returned home, both were ignored.
Great house, bad management
