Anyone staying here for a weeklong vacation is spending 5 digit$ and deserves an unbiased review. I was able to discern from the guest book that mostly/only friends of the family had stayed there prior to my family (12 guests ages 5-12 and 35-65) coming from across the country for 7 days after finding the property on Vrbo. There are pros and cons. The pros include location (being located in Avalon). The kitchen had everything we needed. The place was clean and spacious. It is well decorated. One of the best things was using their umbrella and chairs for the beach. I thought it was a pro that the owners are involved in property management but turned out not so great (more on this in the cons). The home came with fishing poles to use and bikes, although in variable conditions. The cons include having to bring our own bed sheets and linens. We had to hire a local service to provide sheets which required more expenses and more work to set up, and to return the sheets. I’ve never had to bring my own sheets to a vacation home rental but this was required to accommodate the owners and their cleaning crew. The electricity was short circuiting in the 3rd floor master bedroom multiple times per day which was a huge nuisance because the circuit breaker is on the first floor. The beach is too far to walk for young ones and even older kids in the summer heat. Easy enough to drive down and park, though. Speaking of walking be prepared to walk a LOT of steps, even the kitchen requires walking two sets of stairs to access. Lastly what put a dark cloud over the stay was the last 24 hours through check out. My parents, siblings and I spent the final day of our vacation organizing the place, doing dishes, cleaning and doing laundry (bath towels and beach towels) and taking excess trash to the local dump. We aren’t professional maids, but we are all homeowners and parents and we have vacationed together in rental homes dozens of times. Within 25 minutes of check out, the owner sent me a nasty message berating me and my family for what she perceived was us disrespecting the home. No questions, no conversation, just berating and literal attempts to shame us. Needless to say I have never experienced this. I hope the owners learn how to communicate better and establish more realistic expectations for guests, otherwise they should only rent to their friends or small parties for short durations.
