Pros: the house is spacious and well-appointed with comfortable furnishings. The kitchen is very well stocked with cookware, plates, etc. Bayview Beach is gorgeous. Large deck with nice grill and big table for outdoor dining.
Cons: the house was listed as having central A/C. We never imagined this meant half the house, and only 25% of the bedrooms. When we arrived, we asked the owner and learned that A/C is only on the 2nd floor (which has 1 bedroom for 2 ppl, kitchen & common areas). 3 bedrooms downstairs were over 80 degrees at night with small fans provided. Listing has since been changed to state this, but was not at the time of booking. 7 ppl downstairs were extremely uncomfortable for sleeping and had to sleep on couches upstairs for most nights. While it was a hot week, we booked a summer vacation hoping for hot weather to enjoy the beach and thought we would have a nice cool house to return to. Upon alerting the host, he only offered for us to pick up cooling fans at Home Depot (2 different trips and not super close). When a partial refund was requested for this extremely expensive listing that was not as advertised, he refused and only offered a discount for future booking, which we didn't want, given our experience. This was very disappointing given the price point of this property and description of A/C in VRBO listing, emails to me prior to the visit specifically mentioning A/C, and the pdf document describing the house. None of these materials provided to us prior to the trip stated that half the house does not have A/C. We never would have booked.
Also note that it is not "steps" from the beach as also advertised. A brisk walk is about 7 minutes, and with beach gear and kids, expect ~10-12 minutes. This is fine, but also not as advertised. We had 4 young children and the walk was longer than we wanted and up and down a hill with no sidewalk or shoulder on the road. We specifically messaged the host regarding the walk prior to booking, and were promised 2-3 minutes, which is what we thought we were paying for. When raised with the host after arriving, this was dismissed as "wrong”.
Upon complaint, the host claimed he had never had an issue in “years" of renting the house even though it was purchased last year (Mar 2020) and his public online Twitter activity complains of a refund he had to pay to a former guest while using a different platform last year.
