A wonderful stay; some unexpected surprises
Submitted: January 19, 2013
Stayed: December 2012
The following review contains excerpts from a letter we left for the owners.
Dear Ester and Ira,
You have a beautiful home full of coziness and VT charm. The setting couldn’t be more picturesque, and we’ve really enjoyed our stay here.
As renters, however, there are some things we would like to bring to your attention. These things we feel should have been disclosed prior to our arrival.
1. You run a business from the rental home and require an answering machine to be picking up your messages all day/night. We rented your home in VT to relax and to enjoy family time without phones and electronics. The frequent ringing of the phone and audible answering machine was particularly disruptive to the baby in the group and one of us with a sleep issue. Your business phone ringing during our relaxing, quiet family time, and your coming to the house multiple times for retrieval of messages was an unfortunate intrusion of our privacy.
2. The home is cleaned by the owners during a short window of time between renters. We felt that the house cleanliness may not meet the standards of some renters. For example, the presence of the followng was disturbing: dog hair, FECAL matter on toilets and toilet seats, floors not washed, food remnants from previous renters, crumbs on counters, dirty appliances & cabinets, whirlpool tub not cleaned from previous renters, beautiful down comforters that did not have washable duvet covers.
We were quite dismayed that we had to spend our vacation time cleaning toilets, bathrooms, floors and most surfaces in the kitchen.
3. The bunk room is an open space at the top of the stairway, not a bedroom. In addition, the bunk beds don’t have safety rails (for young children).
4. The homeowner will at times be residing in a guest house which is approximately 30 feet from the main house, or in the carriage house behind the main house. Since there are no window coverings on any windows of the main house, guests feel a lack of privacy when the owners are present in and around the property.
4. Owners/owner's pet's medications are located in the kitchen drawers that are easily accessible and within reach of small children.
We want to also acknowledge some of the many positive aspects of your home and our experience staying here: House is fully stocked, fresh towels and linens, stocked full of wood for fireplaces, house nicely decorated for Christmas, lovely antiques, fixtures and creative uses of antiques throughout the home.
Owner's Response: Dear reader:
The below was the e-mail reply sent to the message left by the unsigned writer on 1/7/13.
> From: Ira Wickes <irawickes@yahoo.com>
> Subject:
> To:
> Date: Monday, January 7, 2013, 5:22 PM
> Good Monday Morning,
>
> What a pleasant surprise Ester and I encountered returning
> to one very clean home after two weeks shuffling between
> friends and houses. Thank you so much for taking good care
> of this very special place in our lives.
>
> I also wanted you to know how mush we appreciated your
> making constructive comments about our home, its untidy
> condition and especially the ringing of the telephone.
> Thanks to your indulgence we now have a solution to the
> problem that being turning off the ring. How simple. To us
> tech uninformed and uneducated we need input like this to
> make other renters beneficiaries of this suggestion.
>
> Again I want to thank you for taking the time to write us of
> your concerns. Since we took ten years of our life to put
> together this very unique compound we want everyone who
> visits us to share our love we have for our home.
>
> Ester and Ira
> p.s. This family rented our home and immediately turned off the phone service and verbally told us the total property was under their jourisdiction.
Helpful votes: 1/1
Did you find this review helpful?
Yes
No
