The pictures make this rental look a lot nicer than it really is. After seeing the photos and also reading so many stellar reviews, we were really looking forward to celebrating my daughter’s 8th birthday with a family weekend in Catalina.
Nobody even had the courtesy to simply sweep the massive amount of cobwebs and leaves off the steps to the door. This should have been my first clue of things to come. Once inside, there were cobwebs and spiderwebs all over the corners, Windows, walls, etc. There were many hairs on the floor, a long black curly hair in the bed under the blanket, poop smears under the toilet seat, and lots of dirt and dust all over. There were food splatters one the walls, weird handprints (grease or marinara sauce?) in doorways, tons of greasy handprints all over the fridge door, and the complimentary soap and shampoo was super sketchy, old, worn out looking, and weird. The dish soap under the sink was 90% water and 10% actual soap. Gross! The sheets and blankets looked so old, threadbare, stained, and just so gross.
I called the booking agency to ask for another cleaning and they were super nice. As we were leaving on the golf cart to head into town and allow the cleaning crew some space, two cleaning ladies screeched in on a golf cart. The main lady was SUPER rude and hostile to me, demanding answers and explanations for why she was there (the booking company promised it would be a “new cleaning crew” but this lady was TICKED OFF so I don’t think she was new). She scoffed and my kind answers and was rolling her eyes and being super snippy. When we returned a couple of hours later, it really looked the same minus a couple of cobwebs and minus the fridge door grease. The hairs, dirt, poop smears...all remained. Oh, and the towels in the cupboard were USED!!!!!! There were dirt smears on some of them and caked on dirt wipe marks. There was one lone new hand towel but it had clearly never been washed since being purchased so it was super gross due to that.
I really just could not wait for this trip to end. It was so gross and I just felt so filthy being there. I wish more than anything we could have left and gotten a refund but nobody could assist us with that. I hate to say it but it kinda ruined Catalina for my family.