Well after probably 40 trips + to Hatteras/Frisco we had a rather poor experience last week. First off I am pretty well handicapped, my knees are aftermarket and my hips should be - a life lived rough. So we only rent a house that has an elevator and a boardwalk to the beach. Costly but what I have to do. Sp we arrived at our rental on Sand Road in Hatteras on the 11th., to discover the public beach boardwalk was gone- replaced with a rope down over the dune - the boardwalk did extend to the top of the dune, but the beach side was gone - no warning from the realtor (not that I would have come up with a solution anyways). Next, went to use the elevator - nope, none of the doors would open. Called the realtor who did send a maintenance man over but he couldn't fix the elevator. I will give him kudos though as he helped carry all of our gear - we come with 10 large totes for my kids family and us. Unfortunately there is no way I could carry anything beside drag my worn out carcass up the 3 flights of stairs. We had rented this house previously with no issues, and you wouldn't expect too much wear and tear this early in the season, but we found a broken screen door that started banging around in the wind at 2am, sink drains that didn't , inoperable hose, and other seemingly minor issues. Let the realtor know all this with no response from them. I am sure the next renters had to deal with the very same issues - OH, the elevator did get fixed late Sunday. I had a real struggle getting up from the beach and only made one trip to the beach each day. Saw lots of folks struggling up the rope pull from the beach. Several older folks gave up and walked to one of the other accesses. I have never complained , or really had a reason to on any of our other rentals but really disappointed for what you pay for these places to find these issues. I did tell the realtor that I would never rent that house again, not that they probably care , but I am serious, I won't rent that place again. We have used this realtor for 95% of our visits and to not get an apology, a "coupon" , future discount, ect sure is disappointing. Thoughts?
@sandman Bummer Sandman. Didn't you buy a property out Stumpy point? ...am I confused? Any developments there?
@Beach Farmer Might be a different sandman, we only have property in north central PA
Not an excuse but a explanation is that the homeowners/rental company have absolutely no control over the walkovers to the beach on Hatteras due to NPS regs. if a storm takes it there is little they can do except reapply and once it is approved find a contractor to do that work As far as the elevator that is bad but with the new residential NC elevator inspection requirements the companies that used to work on them are now just swamped with simply doing inspections. Also a reality maintenance man can not really work on them at all due to liability issues, they can check the basics but that's about it. The rental company should of checked it and the water hose issue before it was rented for the first time.
Yelp review, Sandman? I am sorry about the trip. It's not like you were complaining about a silly broken ice maker or something of that sort and being petty. Major major flub on their part for someone that needs help navigating. Won't happen this season or help you, but I'm betting the negligence will result in less rentals next year and going forward. Can you ask the realty company to provide you with the owner's contact info to personally call/email them? I would want to know as an owner of a rental. Could be that the realty company is so disorganized that they don't converse with the owner and the owner will only find out when the rents start drying up. I've heard many stories like yours and the owner was in the dark. Personally, I would be digging in and not let this one go away until I received some satisfaction. You really should get some type of monetary compensation. If we were buddies, I'd be calling for you! Squeaky wheel..... Make sure that you write up a review on the stay too as most people use those reviews when booking a place. Good luck, Sandman!