No title
Alicia
Since mine is the first review, I will write a thorough review so others can get a better feel of this property. I will divide my review between the property itself, and the host.
The property itself is a 10 out of 10!!! It is an absolutely beautiful home, set in a lush tropical setting, with a view that you can never tire of! Based on the setting of the home, the sunrise and sunset are stunning, with lots of beautiful colors reflecting off the clouds. The ocean view is spectacular. The home is large and modern, with so much natural light and beautiful views from each room. The large windows really provide a connection with the surroundings. The home is very thoughtfully appointed with beach chairs, beach towels, comfortable pool-side furnishings, and a great kitchen. The beds are comfortable and the air conditioning and wi-fi worked great! We did have one short power outage, which is not surprising in this area, and we appreciated the flashlights that were provided. The pool was cleaned at least twice during our 6 night stay. We thoroughly enjoyed the town of Ojochal. We took Spanish lessons from a tutor who lives in nearby Scarlet Villas, and enjoyed dinner at Citrus and breakfast at the bakery in the little town. We spent time in the beautiful river, and my son fished there. We visited the nearby waterfall, Cascada Pavon, and had a lovely swim. We also enjoyed Uvita, and visiting the Whale's Tale. Our favorite activity was a guided day hike with Enrique at Santa Lucia Falls. We enjoyed hearing the howler monkeys call each morning, and spotted two howlers in a nearby tree. We were visited by lots of birds. We loved taking in the sunset from the pool and swimming in the rain. We loved this beautiful home, and the amazing location!!
The reason I did not give the property 5 stars is due to the poor communication with the hosts. First, on the day of our arrival, at 5:45pm, we were informed that the latest we could check in was 8pm. This was the first time we had been told about the 8pm checkin time. We had flown into San Jose that day, and due to the 8pm time, we were unable to stop and eat or get any food, and our day had begun at 7:30am. This created a very stressful arrival to Costa Rica, racing the clock to try to get checked in. In the end, we arrived at 7:59pm! Now, on the plus side, the host went to the store and got us some eggs and bread, to get us by until food places opened again in the morning. We really appreciated that, and would have called it even, with the lack of communicating the 8pm checkin offset by the kind gesture of getting food for us. However, the communication problems continued. When we arrived at the house, the host did not provide any instructions on the house. He actually said it was the first time he had ever been to the house. He gave us the wi-fi password and left. He alluded to an electronic info booklet, but he didn't actually send the booklet until the next day. Even then, it was mostly about the general area, and not a book on how to work things in the house.
Upon arriving, we saw that the house had a major insect problem. We have stayed at other places in Costa Rica, and understand that part of staying in this beautiful nature, is that there will be some insects. But this was hundreds of insects all over the kitchen counter and a highway of ants walking all over the walls and floors of one of the bedrooms. I reached out to the host that night and asked to have an exterminator come. He said he would get in touch with me the next day to schedule a time for the exterminator to come. He never did and never sent an exterminator in our 6 day stay. There was some bug spray in the laundry room, so we sprayed the kitchen very well. It did kill the bugs. We vacuumed them up and each morning we would vacuum up the dead bugs.
We were looking forward to a hot shower upon arriving after a long day of travel. However, there was no hot water. I contacted the host to ask about the hot water. He said there was solar hot water. The next morning, after the sun came up, we did have hot water. But, I thought it was strange that we would only have hot water when the sun was shining and that it wasn't disclosed in the listing. With such a nice house, I was surprised they didn't have a backup source to heat the water. I sent three separate messages about the hot water, and the host never replied. I sent photos of the fuse box, etc, but no response. In the end, I found a tankless hot water heater under a low shelf in the laundry room behind some beach towels, and found that the fuse was turned off. I turned the fuse on and we had hot water with no problem after that, no thanks to the host. If the host had a little knowledge of the house, we could have had hot showers our first night.
There were other small things, such as the keychain with so many keys that were never explained to us. It was only our next to last day that we realized the remotes were for the gates to enter and exit the community. There were keys to a safe that we never found.
Overall, I would highly recommend this home and the location, but I think the hosts need to familiarize themselves with the house and they need to be more responsive when questions are sent. Renters should not be left to deal with bug problems and try to