Check in was easy. Location was great, convenient to hiking and downtown Woodland Park. However.
There was a strong odor in the house, much worse on the lower, more carpeted, level: a combination of musty smoke residue, animal urine, and strong perfume.
My family, my sister’s family, and my single brother were booked here while celebrating my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. The smell downstairs was so bad that my sister and her family started having allergic reactions as they were starting to unpack. They left almost immediately after arrival to find other accommodations.
My brother arrived the following afternoon, and also decided he would rather get a hotel room. Instead of the 14 planned, there were 8 of us in the house.
We found at least one febreze plug-in in each room downstairs, sometimes two! That perfume-like smell was apparently placed there to cover up the odors beneath. After unplugging them, we opened windows and turned on fans.
When we first contacted Robyn, she asked how she could make it better. My sister called to speak to her directly, and ask for a refund; Robyn would only agree to refund the cleaning fee. When we began to threaten legal action, she went radio silent. As of present, she still hasn’t responded, nor refunded the cleaning fee.
We kept all the windows open that we safely could, and the fans running. We left early every day to spend time with family at my parents’ home. Thankfully, the temp only got down to the 40s at night.
There were other issues, but we could not address them, since Robyn stopped responding to us.
This was a disappointing experience, to say the least. My family made do with the property, but we felt stuck. It would have made the whole experience better if the host had been honest about the issues, and then genuinely cared about our concerns, and sincerely tried to make things better.
Suggestions:
Replace all the carpets downstairs, including the stairs.
Make necessary repairs inside the house.
Provide a mattress topper for the pullout downstairs.
Mow the lawn and repair the gate and the fence.
Label each remote, and when there is one missing, replace it.
Be transparent about the water tank situation in the listing. If a wash load is not recommended, don’t include “washing machine” in the list of amenities.
Get a bear proof dumpster.
Don’t advertise on the listing that “smoking is allowed” if you really mean it’s only allowed outdoors. (We're sure that people have misunderstood)
