This was our first time staying in a pool home in Windsor Palms. We had previously rented a condo in Windsor Palms a few years back and after that still gravitated back to "onsite". (even though it was a good experience and the condo was 5* condition) Having our own pool in the backyard was the "hook" that will now make it hard to go back to onsite accommodations. I absolutely loved getting out of bed in the morning and heading straight outside to the pool area. (being served breakfast every morning by the pool by dh certainly helped) There's something to be said for having your own private pool where you're not battling for lounge chairs or trying to find your own 4 x 4 space in a huge public pool. So the "love" part of my vacation was the pool...now on to the home....(you guessed it...the hate...well maybe that's too strong of a word......)
Upon entering the home the first thing we noticed was the dirty carpets. There were numerous stains on the carpet and although I realize you can't always clean carpets between guests, this was a carpet in dire need of cleaning a long time ago. There were also a lot of dead bugs around the baseboards/sliding door of the home (I have no idea what they were....large ants with wings?????) which should have been vacuumed up. At one point during the vacation my dh had to move a plant and behind the plant was an accumulation of a lot of dead bugs. After seeing the bugs I immediatedly checked out all the beds, right down to the mattresses and both linens and mattresses seemed to be very clean. After looking around a little more, I realized this rental was a property that lacked proper deep down maintenance. The blinds were all very dirty and dusty...the kind of grime that builds up over time. Although everything looked neat and tidy in the bathroom and kitchen, the bathroom counters were not completely wiped at the back and grimey dust had built up. I'm very anal about keeping my house clean and tidy so I don't know if I was expecting too much, being too fussy, or just got a rental that needed help. The weird thing is the fridge and oven were immaculately clean. (saved me from washing it out before putting groceries away)
There seemed to be a sufficient amount of towels, including pool towels, but I had to go through three different closets to find enough face cloths.
I wouldn't call it a fully equipped kitchen, but sufficient enough to make simple meals.
There was a roll of toilet paper in each of the bathrooms and hotel size soap, but no starter supplies of anything else. (which was fine as I wasn't expecting anything)
Neither the playstation or electronic dart board worked but no big deal for us as we didn't use it. Could have been a disappointment had we expected to use them.
We did call management concerned about the number of dead bugs and were told it was a particularly hard year to keep up with the bugs. (isn't every year a bug year in Florida?) They assured us if we saw any live ones running around they would come spray. We did discover a few cockroaches in the home a couple of weeks into our holiday as well as an increasing number of ants around the pool area so we called management and they came out immediately. They sprayed both inside and outside but I got the feeling that bug maintenance in this property consisted of "spraying when someone complains". I was a little concerned that bug spraying wasn't being done by a professional??????? but not sure how this is handled by other rental properties.
Upon trying to use the vacuum provided we found the bag so full that the vacuum wouldn't even pick up anything. We requested new bags from management and although it took a couple of calls before it was delivered, they apologized profusely about forgetting. That vacuum picked up so much stuff off of the carpet there's no way it had been fully vacuumed in quite awhile. Again, my feeling was the cleaning staff were coming in and doing a quick tidy between guests and never getting down to a good full cleaning.
I booked this house very last minute and at an extremely good price for a 4 bedroom home so I don't think I was as upset with the conditions had I paid top dollar for it. The owners were very pleasant to deal with during the booking process. I have since contacted them regarding my $250.00 security deposit refund and have not received a response. (we checked out July 2) I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and hoping they are on holidays, but it amazes me how quickly they responded to the booking and now that I am looking for my security deposit I am being ignored.
So I loved the pool, disliked the condition of the home.
I did have a chance to view a couple of other rental homes in Windsor Palms and Windsor Hills during our vacation and was very impressed with the condition of these other homes and would definitely rent one of them in the future. Something in the back of my mind keeps saying "you get what you pay for...." Although I was hoping that the good price we got was because of the longer term/last minute rental and not because the place was in dire need of some good old fashioned elbow grease.
I think next time we decide to rent a pool home I will either rent one of the properties I viewed personally or rent one that I know has received some good reviews from fellow Disers.
Upon entering the home the first thing we noticed was the dirty carpets. There were numerous stains on the carpet and although I realize you can't always clean carpets between guests, this was a carpet in dire need of cleaning a long time ago. There were also a lot of dead bugs around the baseboards/sliding door of the home (I have no idea what they were....large ants with wings?????) which should have been vacuumed up. At one point during the vacation my dh had to move a plant and behind the plant was an accumulation of a lot of dead bugs. After seeing the bugs I immediatedly checked out all the beds, right down to the mattresses and both linens and mattresses seemed to be very clean. After looking around a little more, I realized this rental was a property that lacked proper deep down maintenance. The blinds were all very dirty and dusty...the kind of grime that builds up over time. Although everything looked neat and tidy in the bathroom and kitchen, the bathroom counters were not completely wiped at the back and grimey dust had built up. I'm very anal about keeping my house clean and tidy so I don't know if I was expecting too much, being too fussy, or just got a rental that needed help. The weird thing is the fridge and oven were immaculately clean. (saved me from washing it out before putting groceries away)
There seemed to be a sufficient amount of towels, including pool towels, but I had to go through three different closets to find enough face cloths.
I wouldn't call it a fully equipped kitchen, but sufficient enough to make simple meals.
There was a roll of toilet paper in each of the bathrooms and hotel size soap, but no starter supplies of anything else. (which was fine as I wasn't expecting anything)
Neither the playstation or electronic dart board worked but no big deal for us as we didn't use it. Could have been a disappointment had we expected to use them.
We did call management concerned about the number of dead bugs and were told it was a particularly hard year to keep up with the bugs. (isn't every year a bug year in Florida?) They assured us if we saw any live ones running around they would come spray. We did discover a few cockroaches in the home a couple of weeks into our holiday as well as an increasing number of ants around the pool area so we called management and they came out immediately. They sprayed both inside and outside but I got the feeling that bug maintenance in this property consisted of "spraying when someone complains". I was a little concerned that bug spraying wasn't being done by a professional??????? but not sure how this is handled by other rental properties.
Upon trying to use the vacuum provided we found the bag so full that the vacuum wouldn't even pick up anything. We requested new bags from management and although it took a couple of calls before it was delivered, they apologized profusely about forgetting. That vacuum picked up so much stuff off of the carpet there's no way it had been fully vacuumed in quite awhile. Again, my feeling was the cleaning staff were coming in and doing a quick tidy between guests and never getting down to a good full cleaning.
I booked this house very last minute and at an extremely good price for a 4 bedroom home so I don't think I was as upset with the conditions had I paid top dollar for it. The owners were very pleasant to deal with during the booking process. I have since contacted them regarding my $250.00 security deposit refund and have not received a response. (we checked out July 2) I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and hoping they are on holidays, but it amazes me how quickly they responded to the booking and now that I am looking for my security deposit I am being ignored.
So I loved the pool, disliked the condition of the home.
I did have a chance to view a couple of other rental homes in Windsor Palms and Windsor Hills during our vacation and was very impressed with the condition of these other homes and would definitely rent one of them in the future. Something in the back of my mind keeps saying "you get what you pay for...." Although I was hoping that the good price we got was because of the longer term/last minute rental and not because the place was in dire need of some good old fashioned elbow grease.
I think next time we decide to rent a pool home I will either rent one of the properties I viewed personally or rent one that I know has received some good reviews from fellow Disers.
I don't know if I could be swayed back to a hotel room onsite. And the other properties I toured while in Florida were absolutely 5* gorgeous! Probably decorated nicer than my own home.
