Beautiful home, excellent location.

The cabin is spacious and cozy. However, the house was not properly cleaned. All the beds had hair on the sheets. The blankets had a smell that clearly indicated they hadn't been washed. We arrived at the house after a 12-hour car journey and had to wash all the bedding and blankets. This took HOURS considering there were 14 of us. Also, the refrigerator filter was expired, indicating it needed to be replaced. I sent an email to the host requesting a replacement, but he did not respond or resolve the issue. We experienced a power outage in half of the house. I tried to contact the host by phone but couldn't. I contacted VRBO (which doesn't have a phone number, only chat, and the delay in getting to speak with a live agent was unbearable). Finally, after a few hours, the host contacted me. A few more hours later, someone came to check and restored power to the rest of the house. My family travels quite a bit and we are very used to short-term rentals. We understand that unforeseen events can happen and that it's nobody's fault. But some things are non-negotiable. One of them is cleanliness. Especially since an extra fee is charged specifically for cleaning. Paying for that and then having to wash the bed linens upon check-in is absurd. Another non-negotiable thing is access and communication. It's not a problem if an unforeseen event happens and a circuit breaker trips. The problem is taking 3 hours to get in touch with someone. It was Christmas, so it was unpleasent.