Worst Experience Ever with VACASA (Please see photos)

[Louise-And-Jonathan0]

We recently rented a A-frame cabin located in Carnelian Bay, from the host Vacasa. Unfortunately we did not enjoy our stay as much as we would have wanted. The cabin was not clean to anyones standards, there were household hazards for dogs. We would like to share our experience (safety and health concerns) with you all since we are not able to add any photo on our review.

1. bed sheets were wrinkly with hair in between the sheets,
2. there was left over used bake ware in the oven when we wanted to use it,
3. tons of large ball of dust/hair was scattered throughout the house,
4. living room carpet was filled with hair NO vacuuming was done on this rug,
5. broken glass was found in the kitchen floor by our puppy
   (what would have happened if i stepped on it and cut my foot open? or our dogs ate some broken glass?),
6. spider webs left to hang around the drapes upstairs and all over the bedroom,
7. dirty appliances was placed back into the kitchen cabinets,
8. refrigerator was not wiped down the shelfs inside was really filthy, dried veggie, crumbs etc,
9. fireplace was filthy and full was not cleaned/emptied,
10. part of the railing for the downstairs was broken and dangling,
11. crumbs was found in between the bed in the loft,
12. blankets are so thin they should have been changed out for the colder season,
13. stains on multiple carpets around the house,
14. the water from the fridge was not dispensing,
15. few old/junk electronics just lying by the outside of the Airbnb.
    
    

We ended up vacuuming the living room carpet and the whole dust bin filled up, we spent most of the time cleaning the items that we would use or cleaning the space the we would occupy with our time at the cabin. They advertise this cabin as dog friendly, which was the opposite. The cabin should not have been ready for a hand over to the next guest in this condition. Bedding should have been changed to accommodate the cooler weather, we found ourselves blasting the heat at night due to the lack or bedsheets available, we had to wear our sweaters to go to bed.

It's a total of $1150 for our stay from Sat late afternoon to Monday early morning (including $295 cleaning fee, $129 service etc). Did the cleaning crew even do the cleaning with the 6 hour window with the late check in 4pm and early check out 10am? This is the worst airbnb experience we have ever had, it's absolutely an uncomfortable stay.

Chips by the bed (Loft)

Stain on stinky kitchen runner

Greasy fridge with crumbs

Dust & hair from living room rug

Hair between bedsheets

Dust & hair ball

More dust & hair ball

More and more dust & hair ball

Used bakeware left in greasy oven

Shattered glasses sitting on kitchen floor

Broken railing

Filthy fireplace

Dirty kitchen appliances

[Louise-And-Jonathan0 · Accepted solution]

On Vacasa website

Details about Vacasa Premium Clean Program - https://www.vacasa.com/support/vacasa-premium-clean

[Clara116]

@Louise-And-Jonathan0 Like many other hosts on here....WHY did you stay longer than 10 mins? The fact that so much money was invested and a cleaning fee of $295 plus all the fees and yet you still cleaned, searched, took pics.....I'm just a little confused why? You have dogs and broken glass or anything that could be a danger to my animals would have been a deal breaker.

You don't seem to have a limit for a deal breaker....guess we are all different as guests like we are as hosts.

Curious if you are just venting, or wanting others to join in your complaint of the place...I can't do either.

Like many of us - we would have called the company - and not stayed 10mins longer NO matter what time of day/night it was.  You cleaning the place really baffles me, just telling it like I read your post.

[Bonnie468]

If the guest has paid in advance, maybe they couldn't just leave.  I just had a similar experience after booking a beach unit via Airbnb but hosted by Vacasa.  I called within hours of checking in and emailed and NO ONE responded until the day I was driving home.  I did leave a day early but that's my money I had to leave on the table.  Even after submitting multiple photos and follow-ups, still no response.  A lot of folks don't realize that this was a listing hosted by a large management company (myself included until after the fact)

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Louise-And-Jonathan0 generally you are better off with hosts who look after their own listings as they have more skin in the game. I would never book with a host who has more than a couple of listings

[Sudsrung0]

@Mike-And-Jane0 @Louise-And-Jonathan0 

If I understand this correctly that company manages airbnb's? 

If so the guest cannot claim against airbnb? would that be right?

We do say in our listing if you are coming to Phuket book direct with the owners, ME. 

People dont like agents even here, I've seen houses get trashed that have been run by management companies and agents, and we dont deal with agents they are a pain in the backside.

In the past when we have put a for rent sign outside a property you will get bombarded with calls from agents.

[Chris232]

"tons of large ball of dust/hair was scattered throughout the house"

REALLY !!!!

TONS !!!

OMG that must have been really bad.

Exaggerate on 1 point and you lose the argument.

[Gillian166]

@Chris232  yes, there are many exaggerations here. I see signs of lazy cleaners who cut corners. but poking into small cavities to complain about things is a bad sign. 

"shattered glasses" this must be an English language problem. This list of issues is bad, but the reaction from the guest is a bit over the top.

[Gwen386]

@Louise-And-Jonathan0 What I really don’t understand is all the time you invested in cleaning the place yourself and in even staying for longer than 10 minutes. It is no way in hell I would have stayed here—even for free!

[Helen3]

Hello @Louise-And-Jonathan0 

I'm sorry you had this experience. Unfortunately many guests complain about listings run by large scale STR companies like Vacasa.

What does seem strange about your experience is that you didn't contact Vacasa and ask them to get their cleaners to come out and clean and if this wasn't possible ask Airbnb to cancel the booking and help you find alternative accommodation.

I agree with other hosts. I certainly wouldn't have stayed if I checked in and found accommodation in that state.

[Bubba-Lee0]

Sad to say, I'm not surprised.  When I browse the properties that pop up when I log on to AirBNB, I notice some of the featured properties on the first page have rather low star ratings; low enough that were it MY listing, AirBNB would be bombarding me with messages threatening to suspend or delist me. (Further proof that Super Host is a crock of [poop] when it comes to priority placement in search engines. But I digress....)  When I look at the listings themselves to see why their ratings are so low, inevitably they are properties run by the likes of Vacasa or Evolve. Complaints generally revolve around lack of cleanliness and lack of customer service when there's an issue.

Going forward, I would suggest you patronize places that aren't run by Big Companies who have no skin in the game.

[Jenny]

Hi @Louise-And-Jonathan0 

Sorry to hear about this.

Did you contact the Host or Airbnb Support about this when you checked in and realised that the listing wasn't in a habitable condition?  

I know the stay has ended now, but just so you know, there's an article here which details the steps to take when a listing isn't up to scratch, especially in line with the cleaning standards that you shared in the replies.

Airbnb give you 72 hours to report any issues, from the time of discovery.

Hopefully this won't happen to you again, but thought it useful to let you know where to find help, just in case.

Jenny

[Tim3280]

We check in 4 hrs late, house was cold (power and heat was turn on before we check in) was no any water at all. No help from Vacasa. From midnight till 2:00 am we have to be creative to find garden hoses and connected water from the neighbor pump house to house we stayed and next morning was no help.Beds sheets was not washed and was dirty. Never deal again with Vacasa never. 

[Jennifer4625]

So sorry! We had a similar disgusting stay with Vacasa this week. And we got in very late at night (fleeing flooding and tornados) so not able to call in housekeeping. (We left early the next day…)  I want to help others avoid a similar situation, so I was very honest about the mold problems and other things. 4 days later…Airbnb still hasn’t posted my review!! As soon as I hit Send, I received a msg saying they’d let Vacasa know how they can improve. But have yet to post my review. I wonder if Airbnb gets a kickback for not allowing all the negative reviews to post?  Has anyone else experienced this?

[Sarina46]

Reviews appear instantly when both parties submit them. If one side does not review the other, it takes 14 days for the review to post. This is all explained on the Airbnb website and app.