Meredith LodgingReviews of meredithlodging.com

When we returned for our trip, I received an email wanting to get some feedback on our stay at the Diamond K in Depot Bay. Since I had some negative things, I thought I would share them privately with Meredith Lodging, in hopes that they would care and at least take notice of my comments. I have never received an email from them, which is extremely disappointing. I guess that is why they have the rating they do. So, I decided to make my comments public so others would at least know what to expect. I have included them below: I have helped manage homes on Lake Travis for 10+ years so I really appreciate the time and energy in preparing homes for guests. And, I know no home can be perfect and do not expect that. I also understand how important the feedback can be as well as reviews. So, I wanted to take a little time and give you some personal feedback. 1) I feel the home was very clean! I was quite impressed! 2) It was also well stocked with most things we needed. The only thing we needed and didn't have was a platter or two. It is difficult keeping things stocked but you are doing a good job! And with Covid, it was nice having our own little bottles of things like dishwasher soap. 3) The carpets are in pretty bad shape, even for a vacation rental. 4) The windows are in horrible shape. I understand it is difficult to keep them clean with sea spray, but there is some kind of permanent film or calcium on the windows which made it very difficult to enjoy the view except on sunny days. When it was cloudy, the view was really obstructed. Since part of the reason we rented this home for the outstanding views, this was a huge disappointment! It was too cold and windy to enjoy the balcony so all we had for a view were cloudy windows. 5) The rug in the living room needs to be removed. Some of us tripped over it more than once!! We didn't fall, but it could be a real danger for other guests. 6) We were very impressed with the # of pillows! 7) The staff was very responsive while we were at the property. We couldn't get in because there was a problem with wifi or something but they took care of the problem for us. They also were very quick in responding when we didn't know how to turn on the fireplace. We were hoping to find a home that we could return to over and over, but because of the windows, we will look for a different home, unfortunately. It has the potential to be a 5* rental but it is not at this time. Overall, we did have a great time.

I have used Meredith Lodging on 4 occasions now. ' This is a tough review to write because they do some things very well but they also do things that make me not want to book with them: Pros: They respond relatively quickly They provided us a full credit to reuse within a year when they were not obligated to do so The booking confirmation is efficient Negatives: The 4/5 pm check-in times and 11am check out - if you want us out by 11am let us in the rental by 3pm please - they need to get their cleaners on a more efficient schedule instead of passing on the burden to the renters The last house we rented (Star of the Sea in Lincoln City), had a great view but the inside needed a LOT of work and one of the 4 bedrooms was super noisy. I would be open to using them again if they can get earlier check-in times. For now, I will go through another property management company or rent direct via family/friends

UPDATE......Meredith Lodging has reached out to us with a sincere apology and assured us that these issues would be rectified. They offered us compensation for our troubles. We will rent from Meredith again in the future. We paid top dollar for the Moonstruck beach house near Roads End in Lincoln City. The house is right on the beach with amazing views. It is very large, sleeps a lot of people and has great beach access. However we had several issues from the moment we tried to check in. The electronic door code did not work, had to call and troubleshoot the problem. The hot tub was not working. A maintenance guy showed up to the house the first night. He said it was quite dirty and needed to be drained, cleaned and filled again. After performing the maintenance, he turned the power back on but the hot tub did not work, no power to it. He could not figure out what the problem was. We were then told someone would be out the next day to fix it but no one showed up. It was never fixed, my family was looking forward to the hot tub, that is why we booked this house. The hot tub overlooks the ocean, it is the first photo you see when searching for this property, so obviously it is a major amenity of the house. Not having a working hot tub really put a damper on our trip especially with how much we paid. One night the smoke detectors started alarming for about 20-30 seconds every couple hours. I checked the entire house for smoke or fire, none was found and the fact that they stopped alarming after a short time seemed there was a malfunction. This was not the normal low battery alarm, this was a full alert with a voice shouting "FIRE FIRE FIRE". I called Meredith again, they were apologetic and said someone would be out the next morning to take a look but again no one showed up. Finally at 3am after the smoke alarms continued to sound and kept our whole family up, I started taking them off the wall and ceiling and found one in a back bedroom to be faulty. I disarmed it and reinstalled the rest. My family only got a few hours of sleep that night, my kids didn't want to sleep there any more for fear of the house burning down. We were about to pack up and head home because of it. Another night I went to turn on the BBQ but the rusted propane bottle was empty and the BBQ would not light. One of the main large windows at the dining table has a broken shade. It would not go up or down. Luckily we were able to drape it up out of the way so we could enjoy the view. The freezer in the kitchen was not making ice. The kitchen hand soap pump was empty. There was a faint smell of urine and old house smell in parts of the house. It was not very clean, there were chip crumbs on a table downstairs, a dirty flosser on the floor, underwear and garbage outside the house. The two outside garage bins were overflowing. It was clear they had not been picked up for awhile. Luckily it was garbage day the second day we were there. I rolled them to the street and they were emptied.

Never again! Seriously, google “Meredith Lodging reviews” and look at their complaints on Better Business Bureau and you will see I am not the only one. This business is taking advantage of the pandemic and keeping as much money from reservations as they possibly can by hiding behind vague contract references. Do not be fooled by their responses to reviews and their messaging on their website about how “we are all in this together.” When it comes to non-public, direct communication, they will not give a straight answer and they will stonewall you with a “sucks to be you” attitude. We reached out to them 60 days ahead of our check-in date because, as essential workers, we already know from our employers we will no longer be available for travel in July. Our group includes a nurse and other emergency response workers. We are working around the clock and doing our part. We tried to do the right thing and be proactive. They could easily issue us a refund, we could part ways, and they could re-list our dates. Instead, they are refusing us a refund and have stopped communicating. I promise you, we have been nothing but polite and reasonable. Booking through AirBnB did not protect us from them. If we we get a refund (NOT a travel “credit” or future stay voucher that we cannot use), then I will update this review. Update 5/20: Following our social media outreach attempts, Meredith Lodging did promptly have the right person who could help us reach out and they resolved our issue with a full refund, as requested. For this we are very grateful. We understand they were low staffed and also acknowledge we were in need of an exception that their primary phone and email staff may not have had the authority to provide. We recommend continuing to advocate for what you need. If a travel credit works for you, it seems those are readily available. Once we were in touch with their leadership, their communication was polite, professional and they made solid efforts to repair our previous loss of confidence in their processes. Their PR rep staffing their social media accounts was also responsive and reassuring.