We stayed 4 days, on the morning of day 2 we realized that we had no hot water. We were never given a phone number to call, only told to message through VRBO. I did and didnât hear back from anyone for 2 hours (7-9am). Aspen asked me to locate the hot water heater and turn it back on. My husband went outside and did so. Rain water off of the roof was pouring into the area where the hot water heater is stored, which I told her about. She told me that she sent her assistant out twice that day, though I never saw him, and that if we needed it turned back on again to let her know. I informed Aspen that turning it on wasnât going to fix our issue since it had been turned back on several times.
Day 3 came and we still had no hot water. I told her I felt like we deserved to be compensated for not having hot water for multiple days, she agreed and asked for our permission to send over a professional. I said that was fine. The maintenance person came that afternoon, probably around 3pm. He said the whole unit needed to be replaced and that it was due to the water coming off the roof and into the housing where the heater was stored. He said it would take about an hour to remove the old one and install the new one, then another hour for the water to heat up. He left not long after, taking the old water heater with him. He didnât come back until 8 or 9pm. He told my husband that he drove around for several hours trying to find someone to honor the warranty. When he couldnât find that he gave up, purchased a new one, and came back to install it. He also had to build a system to divert rain water away from the area so this wouldnât happen in the future. Since it took some time to install all of that and heat the water we didnât have hot water again until after 10pm, half the family was asleep at that point. The next morning was the morning when we were checking out.
Aspen did send me a partial refund, 10% of our stay less the cleaning fee and taxes. I messaged her to say that I didnât feel like this was enough considering how much of our trip was affected by this issue. I never heard from her again. I wouldâve been satisfied with a refund amount of 1 day worth of our trip but I was never given the opportunity to discuss the issue with her and it appears that she now considers this matter closed. While this hot water issue is unlikely to to repeat to anyone in the future I believe it shows how the property is managed.