The house itself is great:
1. Amazing location on Balboa island
2. Spacious layout with the four bedrooms split into two segregated sleeping areas, ideal for travel with kids
3. Awesome, awesome well-equipped kitchen with high-end range and Zwilling cutlery
4. Complete battery of bikes and beach toys for enjoying Newport Beach beaches
Unfortunately, our overall impression was ruined by what can only be described as Vacasa’s gross incompetence, the property management company we were forced to use.
After reserving through Vrbo, we then had to complete a separate registration / payment process through Vacasa. Fine, no big deal. However, the amount Vacasa was attempting to charge us for the booking via their online system was not the same as what should have been charged per the Vrbo reservation.
So, I emailed Vacasa asking them to fix and got generic response asking me to call. Fine. So, I call… and wait on hold for 45 minutes to talk to someone until I had to drop for a meeting. Repeat this four times over the next days. Sent another email explaining I tried calling and couldn’t get through… no response until a week later I get another generic “please call us” response. Sent message through Vrbo’s system asking how to resolve and no response. Finally, after two weeks of trying to get through to someone, my wife called in the evening and was able to get the billing mixup fixed. Under no circumstances should anything so simple be so difficult to fix.
So, we arrive at the house to check in. The check-in instructions we were given were to use a code on the keypad to the garage door opener. Garage door would not open with code provided. So, I once again call Vacasa. After waiting on hold, the solution offered was to read the garage keypad instructions back to me and, after I explained I had done that many times to no avail, I’m told a “ticket” to the local manager to help resolve the issue will be submitted. Meanwhile, my three-year-old is crying because he has to use the bathroom and we can’t get in the house to do so.
After about 45 minutes someone shows up and get us in the house… apparently the code on the opener was not set correctly.
Like I said, once Vacasa was out of the picture and we had access to the house, we had a great time. But, the damage had been done. Between the billing fiasco and being unable to contact anyone at Vacasa and problems getting in to the house, there is NO chance I book another property managed by Vacasa. None.