Traveler Reviews of Sequoia House Rental - Listing #35861, 21 Vacation Rental Reviews on Vacation Rentals.com

IDEAL IN MANY WAYS, NOT SO MUCH IN OTHERS.......

D. J. D. (SAPPHIRE, NC)
Review submitted: May 18, 2013 Date of arrival: May 2, 2013

First, the good news........This home has a spectacular location. It sits directly on a fast water stretch of the Kaweah River in an extraordinarily beautiful setting of trees, shrubs, and natural rocks. The views from the home are equally spectacular.........Sequoia Park's Moro Rock and Alta Mountain can be seen in the distance, as well as beautiful foothills typical of the Three Rivers area. And although the property sits conveniently on highway 198 only two miles from Sequoia National Park's south entrance, the home is located over a hill and traffic noise is not noticeable. Deer ambled through the grounds one evening, and quail were numerous. And to top all of this off, The property manager, Derek, was exceptionally attentive and helpful.....a real asset to the owner and to us as renters.

However, we found several things that concerned us during our stay..........some things to be aware of, and some that could and/or should be remedied.

-Cell phones (We have Verizon) do not work here.
-The home does not provide long distance........you must have a calling card.
-Internet is not provided.
-Only basic Dish channels are provided.
-The TVs are very small (by today's standards)
-The spectacular views were marred by very dirty windows.
-The exterior of the home was in need of cleaning..........if not painting.
-The interior paint was showing wear.
-Landscaping at the front of the house was in need of care...mulch, etc.
-None of the homes drawers or cabinets have pulls......consequently the drawers/cabinets are sticky/dirty where folks have to grab them to open.
-The refrigerator had an obviously old sign that read, "ice maker broken".
-When the air conditioning fan was placed on "on" at the thermostat, nothing happened..........the fan did not come on.
-Though the bedrooms are spacious, there are only queen beds.

For many folks perhaps the above concerns will not be of consequence. We are admittedly fussy. But we feel that for hundreds of dollars a day, everything in such a luxury rental should be top notch.

Would we go back, and would we recommend this home to others.........absolutely! But we would hope some improvements would be made which could easily make any stay even more enjoyable!

Owners response: Due to the limit of 2,500 characters in this response, I am unable to respond fully. First, it should be noted that this guest called about 11 am on the day he wanted to rent the house. He came and inspected the house and others in 3-Rivers. He chose our house.

I appreciate the feedback on the cabinet doors, and I have talked to the cleaning person about being more vigilant in cleaning these. We do plan on putting pulls on them for that very reason. And we do need to get the ice maker repaired. I also appreciate the positive comments. It is reassuring to hear the property manager did a wonderful job, but that is no surprise to me.

What is surprising are some of his other concerns, starting with the comment on the a/c fan not coming on. He made no mention of this in his 12 day stay. The fan is very quiet and the a/c unit was replaced last summer and has been working fine. If the a/c was not working properly, he wouldn't have been able to tolerate it since we had days with temps about 100 degrees during his stay.

Regarding the dirty windows and the exterior of the house: these were gross exaggerations. I was at the house shortly after his stay, and although they were not perfectly clean, they were far from "very dirty". We normally wait until after the rainy season to clean the exterior of the windows. This is usually around the first 2 weeks of May, the time this unscheduled guest appeared and wanted to rent the house. If he had said something about the windows and the cabinet doors, we would have had them cleaned while he was there.

Regarding the landscaping, he failed to mention that we had the gardner there a few days after his arrival to do weed whacking, and spruce up the area in the front of the house.

Regarding his other concerns on internet, long distance & cell phone receptivity, he was made aware of this by the listing and by me and the property manager. Same is true about the size of the beds and the TVs.

If he had expressed his concerns during his 12 day stay, we could have addressed them and then perhaps come closer to the perfect experience that he felt was warranted by what he paid.

I hope prospective renters will take the time to read the other reviews. Of the 22 reviews submitted directly by guests, including one before his stay and one right after, his is the only one less than 5 stars.

I believe that this is indirect testimony to his own self characterization of being "admittedly fussy".