The location of this condo is PERFECT!! There was a total of 10 of us - 6 adults and 4 kids. It was nice being on the first floor so when we wanted to go to the pool or the beach, it wasn't a long trek down the stairs or the elevator with all of our water toys, towels, drinks, etc. The view from our balcony was beautiful! We enjoyed sitting outside and watching the ocean and the sunset. The condo is decorated nicely and was spacious enough for our entire group.
As much as I want to give this condo a higher rating, I was really turned off by the lack of cleaning and customer support. When we arrive Saturday evening, we did not have any parking passes. Vacasa clearly stated that the parking passes would be in the condo when we arrived. After multiple calls, emails and texts, I was told that if I wanted the parking passes, I would have to go pick them up myself. After driving 14 hours and spending thousands of dollars to rent this place, this was not the service I was expecting and definitely not the way I wanted to start my vacation. We were worried about our cars being towed, so we went and picked up the parking passes, as the customer service representative told me they do not reimburse customers and were not responsible if we were towed, even though Vacasa neglected to provide the parking passes. With the traffic in Orange Beach, it took us over an hour to retrieve the passes.
In addition to the parking passes, there were a few other issues:
- Cleanliness: the kitchen had food crumbs leftover in some of the drawers and one of the bathrooms did not appear cleaned at all. I notified Vacasa about the dirty bathroom. About 24 hours later they sent someone to clean. She said there was definitely a lot of mold and our bathroom would need a deep clean, but it would not be done until after our stay.
- Functionality and Safety: the handle to the freezer door kept falling off. I notified Vacasa, but no one ever responded. We were able to reattach it. One of the patio chairs was broken. The sliding back door was incredibly difficult to open. The track that the door slides on was very dirty, so I'm assuming that's why it was so hard to slide open. In addition, it would not lock. With little kids staying with us, this was a safety concern.
Bedding and towels: While the beds were comfortable, the wrong size sheets were placed on one of the King size beds. We looked all over the condo and could not find another set of sheets. A Full size set of sheets had been placed on a King size bed. We also did not have enough towels for all 10 of us. We notified customer service and about 24 hours later, they brought new sheets and more towels.
A few suggestions:
- Provide a hair dryer in all the bathrooms. With all the stuff we had to bring for the condo (kitchen stuff, bathroom stuff, etc) it would be nice to have had this provided.
- Offer recycling. It felt very wasteful throwing away so much paper, plastic, glass and aluminum. Being on the ocean, in a beach town, I would hope that conservation and recycling would be a priority.
All in all, my family had a great trip to Orange Beach. We loved the location of this condo, and would visit again if cleaning standards are improved and attention to details (like providing the right size bed sheets and enough towels) are done. And of course, customer service should always be a priority.