Luxury Vacation Rentals....Not Always So Luxury.....Our Experience with “ABOVE RESIDENCES” a Case in Point….

The description of their services as posted on ABOVE'S website….worth the read.  

From ABOVE Vacation Residences:

"Over the years, ABOVE has quietly become the go-to leader for connecting the most discerning guests with the private luxury and/or one-of-a-kind properties. Founded on the promise of exclusivity, blended with attentive service, ABOVE manages the most exceptional and unique homes and estate available for lease. ABOVE's concept and unique approach to home and estate rentals can only be found today in the management of the world's pinnacle and iconic hotels. Our process is designed to match our guests with the right luxury home, while delighting both parties through our exclusive and proprietary experiences.”

We enjoy renting from time to time large vacation properties and spending a week with our entire family either hiking, fishing, by the pool, on the lake, at the beach etc, this new company we ran across seem to be ideal for what we needed.  So we rented the 2 acre, 7 bedroom, lake front property described online and searchable as ABOVE Sunset Point, Lake Travis for a week.  The landscaping, pool, and the home overall was as advertised, then you get into actually being in the home…..the following is what we experienced:   

• The Home Theater wasn’t operational when we arrived.  They came out the same day and repaired it only for us to find when in use the theater temp would be 79 to 81 due to the lack of venting in the space and how many folks were in the room.  They had seating for 12, if you closed the door it became unusable due to the heat.  
• We had A/C issues starting the first day and throughout the week.  Two different days during the stay we had A/C techs on the property for several hours. Temps in the bedrooms were manageable, but the main living area, dining room, breakfast nook, and kitchen never got to the homes set temp of 72 which they stated when asked was their standard.  Most afternoons and evenings especially if we were cooking the temp was 78-80 degrees.  They brought us several box fans to use in the main living area.  We had to keep the curtains closed to try and conserve A/C. The large kitchen window facing west has no shades. 
• We had groceries provided by the concierge service delivered to the home by ABOVE for our stay, (24% service fee to do so).  The goods needing refrigerated were stored properly, but all the dry goods were on the kitchen counter.  The homeowner locked the pantries for only their use so any dry goods had to be stored in the laundry room or on the kitchen counters.  In addition we found all the closets locked, (they put portable metal bars in the bedrooms with 6 hangers), many of the kitchen and laundry room cabinets, the garages, the elevator, and the fridges outside supporting the pool area all locked, more to come on that.  
• A very unusual amount of light bulbs were missing or not working throughout the house.  Since the elevator was locked, the only access to the lower level two bedrooms, pool, and game room were via a large outdoor spiral staircase, of which only 2 of 12 light bulbs worked.  The chandelier over the dining table for 10 had 3 of approximately 15 bulbs working, one of the bedrooms 3 of four lamps were missing bulbs or didn’t work, one of two outdoor lights on the Casita out or not working. 
• The lake dock shown online looked like great entertaining space and we were excited about fishing and having access to an outdoor kitchen space on the dock.  The issue is its 82 metal steps down to the lake, (not clear on the site for sure), due to the low lake level, no hand rails the last 10 steps or so, and all the entertaining space shown on line is locked and only for the owners use.  As a result, the dock had only one use which was swimming as otherwise you would have to try to try and lug down anything for drinks, fishing etc, and then lug it back up later.  There was a tram, but the tram was locked for owner use only. 
• Second day in the spa valves malfunctioned, they came out the same day and repaired it.  (PS, guests have no access to controls on the spa or pool, turning on and off fountains, spa, etc, have to be requested via text to the home manager).  
• Due to the elevator being locked for owner use only, (not unusual by the way in rentals), but the only access to the lower floor, (two bedrooms, and the game room along with the pool and outdoor kitchen), was now an outside spiral staircase.   Normally not a big deal but of the two refrigerators, one was out of service the other locked for homeowners use only.  Which meant no storage for drinks, etc. outside, all had to hauled up and down the spiral staircase for those staying downstairs or using the pool area and kitchen.  They did come mid week and open one fridge for our use and unlocked the elevator.  
• The home was stocked with one face towel, and one bath towel per person for a one week stay, no wash cloths and two cup towels in the kitchen.  We had to ask for more to be delivered which they did.  
• On arrival the home had no toilet paper in the Casita, a half roll of paper towels in the kitchen, and no napkins, all of which we went out to purchase on the day of arrival to make sure the home was stocked.  Keep in mind the pantry was locked.  
• Washing machine went out on Thursday, normally not a big deal but they only provided one pool towel for each guest so we were constantly washing them.  Appliance repair guy came out but the machine was not repairable for the remainder of our stay.  
• The bunk room online looks great except its also used for storage which isn’t shown on the website, there is no bathroom, and light bulbs out.  (Folks using the bunk room have to go outside to the pool area to the game room and use that bath). 
• A portion of the A/C issue is the home faces west so closing the blinds in the afternoon helps.  We found a large electronic shade the homeowner had installed on the upper patio to block the sun in the afternoon but the management company did not know it was there and did not know how to use it.  
• We solicited to book a chef for several nights through ABOVE as well as a captained ski boat only to find they would charge a 24% fee for any services they booked on our behalf.  We booked our own services as a result.  The chef we booked the folks at ABOVE required that they be listed as insured on his insurance policy.  Had not had that request in previous rentals.  
• Once we arrived, the home manager asked us to have all overnight guests sign a liability waiver, in our experience the renter and the broker enter into that agreement, not everyone staying at the home.  This particular homeowner had a number of policies around “we have locked this, you can’t do that, you can’t use that, sign this, and we charge for that if you do”, not guest friendly for sure.  
• Then add one layer at the end that was surprising, on Wednesday three days before our arrival I told ABOVE we would be arriving at the home around 2:00 so the home manger could be on site. No mention that time was an issue. On Friday before we arrive we get check in instructions which say Check-In 2:00pm (early arrival is $250).   We arrived at 1:40pm, manager was there on the property.  The day before we leave I get an Amex charge for an early arrival of $250 and the 24% fee for the pantry order, (we expected the pantry charge).   When I challenged the early arrival fee I was told normal arrival was 4:00.  I challenged their communication on that and they credited us the $250 and the pantry fee due to the issues on the home.  Then comes the last customer focused detail, I am assuming when they saw our negative reviews being posted, they recharged us the late fee and the pantry fee as that came back across our Amex last night reversing the credit.   On July the 2nd it was reapplied as a credit to our account with the company noting it was a glitch in their system.

Just a reminder of what they posted on their site…..

“Our process is designed to match our guests with the right luxury home, while delighting both parties through our exclusive and proprietary experiences”.

Not sure I agree…..