I rented this house for a weekend (2 nights) for a total of nearly $1400 including fees. The house itself is nice, spacious, nice game room, nice balcony, close to the lake, etc.
When we arrived Friday night the thermostat was set to on/cool, however the A/C was broken. The upstairs thermostat read 98 degrees at around 6 pm in July in Texas.
One of our party members called the maintenance line, a repairman was sent to fix the A/C, and two representatives of the management company were sent to the residence. When the reps got to the house they offered to go to the store and buy us beer, supplies, etc, however we refused because we came prepared. They offered to extend our check out time on Sunday from 11 am to 2 pm.
The A/C was fixed that evening, however the thermostat still read 90 degrees at 11 PM and 78 degrees at 6:30 AM.
I did not want to negotiate with the property management company in the driveway that evening because I was hosting 9 other people for my birthday, and as they would tell me later, they cannot even make determinations as to refunds as that has to come from the property owner.
I e-mailed the company after our trip and asked for a 50% refund seeing as 1 of the 2 nights we paid for was miserable, and we were forced to remain out on the porch until we decided to try to sleep on top of the covers.
The final decision was to refund me a total of $200. The company's reasoning for the $200 is that the actual cost of the rental was $450/night, and they had granted us the late check out (from 11 am to 2 pm) which is allegedly a $250 value. ($450 - $250 = $200).
While we can all agree that the A/C being broken is an unfortunate event, the simple fact of the matter is that regardless how quickly the unit is fixed, physics does not allow for an entire 3 story house to be cooled by one A/C unit in a Texas July night, resulting in a miserable experience for me and my house guests.
A/C is a listed amenity in every advertisement for this property, across multiple mediums, and the house simply was not air conditioned until well into our second day on property, and I feel that a 14% refund is incredibly inappropriate.
I honestly would have rebooked this property again for next year immediately, if they had handled my refund more appropriately.
P.S. My truck was burglarized for $2,000 worth of items while in the driveway, so the area isn't the safest in town.