Expansive bayfront, family-friendly home with direct Holmes Harbor access

Although I am giving this one only two stars, let me start with something positive. This facility would easily be worth five stars if it were properly maintained, equipped, supplied, and managed. The problem is that it isn’t. The most egregious issue that we encountered was visible black mold in one of the downstairs units. When I sent photos to the management company, they sent their local person over to look. She recommended that we vacate the unit, which we did. My question is why this issue was discovered by a renter? The mold is easily visible. It was spread out over two walls. It didn’t appear the day before we arrived. Why didn’t the cleaning crew report it? The cleaning crew were responsible for other disappointments we had with this rental. Their cleaning efforts seemed cursory and superficial. For example, the bathroom in Smuggler’s Cove appeared to have been only lightly touched – a curl of the previous tenant’s hair clogged the drain in the sink and another whisp had been left on the surface of the sink itself. There was a spider in the tub and another on the floor. There was a generous handful of dry cereal – multi-colored circles, possibly Fruit Loops? – under a cushion of the couch in the living room of the main house. Other deferred maintenance items detracted from my experience. The windows are double-paned. At least two of them leak. Salt water has gotten between the panes. I have a longer list but Expedia imposes a space limitation.

The Pictures & description need to be updated! We picked this location for 2 reasons 1. We wanted to be right on the water. 2. We wanted 1 big house for the family to be all together. The photos make it appear like it’s just a few short steps to the beach out the back door and a nice grass area with a fire pit. In reality you go down at least 10 steep sketchy steps to a fork in the overgrown stickerbush path to even sketchier steps to the first fire pit which needs stickerbush clean up & has 2 rickety chairs. Or you go left and wind around a stickerbush overgrown path to the 2nd fire pit that’s hard to see through the sticker bushes. Then continue to another set of rickety wood stairs down to the beach. The house was not all together. It’s 3 separate units. The upstairs is the main house and downstairs (accessible outside only) are 2 smaller units. They all have separate names and are set up to be individually rented. So you could have other people below or above you. Not how it was stated in the description or shown in pictures. Also it took us an hour on the phone with the rental company (vacasa) to figure out the correct lock box codes to get in all the units. The house itself was clean enough, but had crumbs on the kitchen counter upon arrival and could use a deep clean for stains as it’s an older home. The light in one of the bedrooms didn’t work. The main bathroom upstairs locks you in. The dishwasher left black grime on all the dishes. We had to hand wash everything.

The photos for this property are NOT accurate. The majority of these are outdated (by several years), with some items improving and others declining. Before booking (especially at this price), I would request updated photos of the property. I'm bummed to write this review as the main floor of the home was nice, and the space worked well, but this property failed on what we were expecting based on the cost and photos. Pros: -New flooring (like luxury vinyl plank of some sort) throughout main floor of house is beautiful and clean. Don't have to worry about the dingy carpet comments or the carpet from photos. -Main floor and back deck are great for spending time with a larger group and enjoying the weather/view. Cons: -One of the two basement suites is in MAJOR need of updating. Carpet is coming up and carpet nails are poking through in multiple places that caused pokes/scratches/etc. to our feet and anything that was set on the floor in those areas. Gotta love a safety hazard! (and especially because it was noted everywhere to not wear shoes inside) -There are multiple access codes for this home, but only one was given upon arrival for checkin. I had to then call Vacasa who also said there was only one code. Then finally the "local property manager" reached out to me and provided the LIST of codes that were needed to access the entire house. When on vacation, the last thing I want is to have to deal with calls/back & forth to get into the home I already paid in full for. -The property highlights the "beach" as part of the name of the listing, and has a beautiful photo of the backyard. DO NOT be fooled by this. The current situation is an overgrown backyard (not mowed/trimmed recently) and an AWFUL back hillside/path down to the "beach". There are weeds head high and covering the entire path down making it impossible to get to the water without wearing clothing to protect your limbs. One of the two fire pits in the photo is accessible (but not in great shape). The other fire pit and "umbrella covered seating" from the photo appears to have been gone for years. Additionally, there is a different set of stairs at the very bottom of the hill (again different from the photo) that is completely worn down and not totally safe to walk down. To put it short, the "beach" and area shown in the photo looks nothing like this. -No access to lower suites except from outside the house. This is quite inconvenient as the house has signs all over about taking your shoes off before entering. The reason for taking your shoes off is because the flower beds all over the property have bushes/shrubs/etc. that drop leaves/needles/buds/etc. ALL OVER. The walkways/sidewalks are covered in this "stuff" and it gets in your shoes and tracks all over.

The house was beautiful.

Location was great, plenty of parking. There are no T spoons and limited forks in the main upstairs. Toilet in master has water running all the time, needs maintenance. BBQ was great. Ned more dishwasher and clothes washing machine pods. We were given the wrong combination for the lock box in one of the lower units, we rented the entire house. Low water pressure and lots of air in the upstairs main house. Mutiny Bay bathtub drains slowly. Ice machine on main floor has hole and drops to bottom of freezer. Mutiny Bay living room missing slats on vertical blinds and mutiny bay bedroom has no blinds. Sofa beds stated in description were trundle beds. No mattress, you sleep on couch cushions. Overall grounds need significant maintenance. Stairs and path to the beach are dangerous, missing wooden board on several steps. Smugglers Cove suite smelled a little like smoke.

We enjoyed walking on the beach.

Pluses: -Spacious with lots of room for families - we rented the main house and the two lower level one bedroom suites. -Good bay view out back with a fire pit and beach access - the beach is rocky and comes and goes with the tides. Shoes should be worn on the beach. -Rooms, towels, and linens were clean. -Good location for relaxation and a convenient base camp to other areas on Whidbey Island. Minuses: -Although the carpets were vacuumed well, numerous stains on the white carpets at the main house diminished the appeal. -At the main house, the kitchen faucet had either too much sediments or water pressure issues at the faucet head that caused the water flow to only trickle at a slow rate. This made cleaning and refilling water pots slow and difficult. -The dishwasher may have suffered the same issues as the sink faucet so that the dishes did not get very clean. -The main house kitchen was well stocked with dishes and cups but lacked other common kitchen ware such as not enough kitchen towels, not enough forks, no spatula to be found, etc. -Towels provided for the lower level units were clean but seem old and not very white. -The bathroom faucet in one of the lower level suites suffered the same low flow water issue. -Bushes were overgrown and blocked paths leading toward the lower level units and the back yard. I trimmed off some with scissors to enable passing through without being hit by bush branches.

The home has a good location on the lake but sadly the yard isn’t kept at all. Hence there is no way you can walk down through heavy wild growth of prickly thorny bushes to get down to lakeshore. The kitchen is well stocked with utensils. I am not giving. 5 start because of water pressure in kitchen sink and state of the carpet is concerning. Overall a good place for family to hangout and rest.