I booked this property excited about a beach weekend but did not get the weekend my wife and I wanted. We arrived at the property at night and when first walking in, it seemed to be a nice beach house. Once we started unpacking, we realized the place was not clean. The fridge was dusty on the outside and had crusty food build up on the inside, all the cabinets felt greasy/sticky to the touch, every crevice in the couch was filled with sand, the washing machine gave off an odor and the house didn't smell bad but did not have the freshly cleaned smell that you hope for in a rental property. Initially, we wanted to stay so we started cleaning the house by wiping down the cabinets, fridge, and countertops then we moved on to sweeping. Every room we swept had a pile of dust and dog hair (this is a dog friendly property, so some dog hair is to be expected but not this much). All of that was ok but then I sat on the couch and a roach came crawling out of the cushion and then back in. This may have been caused by us opening the door to bring our stuff in, as the owner suggested during our messages, but based off the can of Raid in the laundry area, I don’t think so. We started to stick it out and stay for the night but after looking in the washing machine, where we assume the bedding is washed, we were not comfortable staying. We decided to cancel our vacation and head back home.
I messaged the owner on VRBO about the issue and let her know we did not stay. After several messages over the next 6 days and sending pictures the owner decided to refund our cleaning fee only and none of the money for the stay, stating in short that some of our complaints were valid but they did not feel the house was dirty and "it's a beach house" which I guess means some level of sand, dirt, and stickiness is acceptable. I have rented several other beach houses over the years and never felt the need to leave or even clean any of them.
To sum it up, we took time off work, spent money on beach gear, and drove to the coast just to drive back home in the middle of the night and spend our vacation at home. Not to mention that we are out the money for a house that we didn't even stay at. If you are ok with "it's a beach house" level of cleanliness, this might be the place for you. If you have higher expectations or even average when it comes to cleanliness, you will want to keep looking.