Jared E.
Yelp
I booked a condo in Zephyr Cove for myself, my other half, and 6 of my relatives, for Feb 14th to Feb 17th.
When my sister and I arrived to this condo, it was 11pm and it was dark out and we could not find the condo as it sits back off the access road quite a bit. The address is NOT visible from the access road and the parking spots for the condo are marked with tiny dark numbers which are completely invisible at night. We drove around and around looking several times for these spots. We only found the spots by chance, after got out on foot. This was the first issue.
When we finally parked, we could not figure out how to get to the front door of the condo because the ENTIRE WALKWAY AND YARD WERE COVERED IN A FOOT OF SNOW. No exaggeration. We arrived on Feb 14th at night time. There had just been a huge storm on the 13th. When we drove up, we spent about 7 hours stuck on Highway 50 (no exaggeration), which made our drive about an 11 hour drive from the Bay Area. We left at noon and we arrived about 11pm. The HOA nor the homeowner bothered to send anyone to clear a pathway for their guests, so that we could get from the car to the door, which I estimate was about 40 yards apart.
So here we are traipsing through a foot of snow, at 11pm at night, no real idea where we are going, its pitch black out as there are no lights on the outer part of the building. The first door we came to, turned out to be the neighbors but we thought it was ours. Luckily nobody was home to hear us trying to get into their front door at 11 o'clock at night.
Once we get to our condo, there are two flights of stairs to go up, entirely covered in a foot of snow. We still have luggage, groceries and our dinner to carry in. We were forced to go back and forth to the car about 4 times.
And let me just say this, YES we realize it is Tahoe in February and it just snowed the day before but should having a clear walkway and clear flights of stairs be the responsibility of the GUESTS? I don't think so.
Once we get in the door, there are no rugs or mats for wiping feet, so the floors got snowy, dirty and wet and we had to waste clean towels for the floors.
Once we get our luggage, our dinner and our groceries inside its already 11:30pm-11:45pm. We try to eat our dinner but even that gets hindered because most of the silverware had been put back in the drawers with food stuck on them from prior guests. Not to mention the coffee mugs still had coffee stuck to the sides and were placed back in the cabinets like this. We were forced to do a load of dishes as soon as we arrived.
The microwave door has a mechanism that prevents the door from closing. If you're not aware of it, you will think it is broken. So we could not warm up our food. We tried to warm it in the oven which just took forever so we ate cold pizza. Not a great way to start a Valentines/Birthday/Presidents Day/Tahoe weekend. :)
The next morning I notify VACASA support about the issues we encountered, as the rest of our family is arriving that day--some of them senior in age--and we will need a clear path. There is not even a simple shovel at the house.
I waited several hours to hear back from VACASA about helping us with the snow. Eventually I was forced to go into town and buy a shovel and then come back and spend the next hour-and-a-half shoveling the snow myself, which a guest should never have to do. I also bought rugs and mats for the house.
VACASA got back to me after 1pm to let me know somebody will be by later to shovel but by that point its too late. We already cleared the snow.
They are still sending someone to look at the microwave. I ask the guy (Moises) when he arrives if he could just maybe clean up the stairs and parking spots a little bit more-- we shoveled pretty minimally--but he refuses.
The day of check out, VACASA says they will refund me for the shovel. I texted my receipt to the office manager but that was Feb 17th, 2025 and still no refund.
We also forgot some kitchen appliances at the condo, and in one of the automated emails from VACASA the email says "Vacasa can return forgotten items, but you will be responsible for shipping costs." so I asked the office manager for the items to be returned INSTEAD of having our refund for the shovel, but again, that was Feb 17th, and still no response on that.