Unparalleled view with coupled annoyance
Submitted: June 13, 2012
Stayed: May 2012
First off, this is one of the best views you available on the island. This cannot be disputed! This in itself makes this property worth staying at! The island is also very small, so the lack of direct beach access isn't really an issue. We could get to Flamenco beach in minutes, and the incredible Zoni Beach in less than 3 minutes!
The owner is very helpful, but the maintenance guy is not. First off, upon arrival, he wasn't at the ferry terminal as promised. Then when he did show up, it was without the property key. I am not joking. It was all kinds of hot, and we are waiting for a guy with no key to the property.
Then surprisingly every room in the property has air, EXCEPT the living room & kitchen. This isn't a problem in itself, except for there is an insect unique to the island that primarily attacks between 5:00 & 7:00 PM. This insect attacked bite up a good portion of our group. My daughter was bite up so bad, we went to urgent care. The Doc advised we either use a lot of bug spray between 5:00 & 7:00 or spend those hours inside. Well, there is no air in the living room and kitchen. Not very helpful, and annoying at best. There is a bug lamp, and for some reason it was locked up. On the 3rd day after begging, the maintenance guy got it out.
One of the main bedrooms had ZERO hot water. There ought to be hot water in each bathroom. I called the maintenance guy and he really didn't care to come check it out. He just wasn't going to do it. Then the well pump was busted, and startd to flood the 1st floor of the property. Most people would rush over to check out the flooding as water is very valuable on the island. Instead, the maintenance guy spent a good 30 minutes with excuses and over the phone trouble shooting. He eventually showed up and fixed it. The busted pump was spewing water for hours & this guy really wasn't concerned at any level. For the most part, any problem or concern was met with denial & deflection.
The salt in the wound was that we weren't allowed to use the washer and dryer, and the maintenance guy wanted an extra $25 to wash the bathroom towels! Allegedly because water was expensive. So water is cheap when it spews from a busted well pump but expensive when washing bath towels? Hmmmm. They had a washer on property, it was just locked up with the bug zapper.
Lastly, there was a power outage. The maintenance guy said he knew it was coming but forgot to tell us. Really...
Owner's Response: As property owners we would like to address the review that was posted in Homeaway in reference to our property. The property has been in Homeaway for over a year with an excellent rental record and with this exception, only positive comments have been received about the property and service of our Property Manager.
Ferry arrival: The Property Manager was not in the ferry for the guests arrival, since they indicated via e-mail that they would confirm if they were able to catch the 9AM ferry. The manager was informed of the arrival once the guests arrived. He went to the ferry and started to back their bags in his van, since 2 of the guests were getting the car rentals.
The Manager directed the guests to the supermarket and went to his house to get the keys. He did not have the keys with him, since they had not confirmed their arrival time. He came back to the supermarket to direct them to the property.
As indicated in Homeaway, there is AC in the bedrooms. The Manager explained that there are just a few homes that have AC in the living room and kitchen, since there is usually breeze. Guests should always ask to confirm for living area AC.
There is occasional presence of insects in Culebra. Regarding the bug lamp, the Manager provided for the lamp the same day it was requested. In the House Rules we make reference to an area in the kitchen where there is a first aid and repellents.
Regarding the hot water, the rules specify that if the 3 showers are used at the same time (we have line heaters) you might run out of hot water in the middle bathroom.
The extra towels were provided at no cost. For rental of 6 days or less we do provide 2 bath towels and 1 beach towel per person. There is no access to the laundry rooms for rentals of 6 days or less, which is specified in the Homeaway site.
As to the water pump, yes accidents happen. Since the house has two water pumps the guests called at 6PM and the manager was there half hour later to fix the same.
In Puerto Rico, there are occasional power outages, but we never do we know when they are going to happen or how much they are going to last. The power outage lasted about one a half hours. The Manager never said that he knew about this and forgot to tell the guests. The guest were told that it could be that the Power Authority was doing work.
The owners
Helpful votes: 5/8
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