I booked Saturday, May 7 for the weekend of May 13. I received a series of contracts from the property manager on Sunday, May 8. One of the contracts stated I did not purchase insurance, which I did, through VRBO. I of course wasn’t comfortable signing a document that stated I did not have insurance but I signed all others on Monday May 9. I responded to their email at the email address specified to contact and said as much. I did not hear back except for booking confirmations and access details. The day before checkin I was asked for a picture of my credit card and drivers license, which I’ve never been asked for before and I’ve rented many places via rental sites. I sent it. Friday afternoon I received a message that I needed to sign the contract that stated I did not have insurance. I let them know, again I wasn’t comfortable signing the document. My only other option was that they would cancel the reservation. The day I am supposed to check in. These are unscrupulous and underhanded business practices. At this point I’ve already paid for and arranged travel, I’d be out the funds I paid for insurance as well as VRBO fees and with no place to stay. I was also asked for the names of the children I would have with me. Also an irregular request.
I was not given details on how to get to the home. I did a google map to Hamilton Cove and I saw it was a 5 minute walk from the dock. So I walked, with 4 kids ages 4-12, the 5 minutes, which turned out to be the property manager office which was closed for the day.
No one responded to calls or texts from 5:00 pm Friday through Sunday. I walked back to the boat dock, with all 4 kids in tow, to see if anyone there could help me. I was instructed by the kind people at Catalina Express that I would need a taxi and how to go about getting a taxi in Catalina.
We finally got to the house and it was underwhelming to say the least. There’s no air conditioning and many of the windows are broken and won’t open to allow proper air circulation. There were 2 bars of soap, smaller than the palm of my hand for the whole house. No shampoo, no conditioner, no body wash, no basic essentials, such as enough coffee for the first morning, a couple of laundry pods in case they are needed, baking sheets to use in the oven, a few bottles of water, NOTHING.
The walls were filthy, the wifi speed was 6.54 Mbps when it worked and no cell service.
