This home was every bit as gorgeous as it appears in the photos, and the surrounding grounds and lake are even lovelier than promised. We loved the region, especially downtown Littleton and the neighbors were all friendly and helpful. We're looking forward to staying in this region again in the future, but we will not ever book with Vacasa again.
First impressions: the house was beautiful, sunny and well appointed as far as towels went. However, there were a few obvious issues from the get-go.
First, the bed in the master bedroom was broken upon arrival. We were still able to use it, but it felt unsafe, and it was uncomfortable and extremely noisy. Then in the living room, we discovered that the disproportionately small television (not a big deal, it just looked kind of silly on the large wall) had no remote control anywhere to be found. The next issue was that, in preparation for a 10 day stay at $700+ a night, Vacasa only saw fit to leave us 3 dishwasher pods, a 4 oz bottle of dishwashing fluid, and 3 garbage bags. The garbage issue was compounded when we realized we could not find find any outdoor garbage cans, nor any instructions with what to do with the garbage.
We called Vacasa to ask for assistance and they told us they would bring out some outdoor garbage containers for us to use, and also info about where we could find the TV remote or if they could supply one. It took days before they took any steps to address these issues. While we waited for them to arrive with garbage cans, we finally caved and had to put our garbage outside to avoid smelling up the house, and animals got into it, so we spent one of our vacation mornings cleaning that up. Finally, halfway through our time at the house, they arrived with a remote control and batteries and told us the garbage cans we needed had actually been in the shed only accessible by a hidden key the whole time. The oven took literally hours to come up to temperature, and we still aren't sure if it was broken or just inefficient. The icemaker in the fridge also didn't work. The propane tank was nearly empty and a new one had to be brought out with the remote control. And while the house smelled clean upon arrival, the sunroom was covered in crumbs, which was strange.
In short, this is a gorgeous property and despite the many irritations that came up because of poor/neglectful management, we had a lovely time. But honestly, I have paid much less for owner-run vacation houses that were cleaner, more well appointed and more helpfully managed. Vacasa did this house a disservice by cutting corners in ridiculous ways, like not giving us basic information or items like sufficient garbage bags. Forest Lake is a lovely place, but be mindful of who you book with when you stay there.