Natural RetreatsReviews of naturalretreats.com

We just got back from our stay in Mammoth lakes in the solstice Unit #21. Initially we were very excited to stay here because from the photos it looked amazing. At $700 a night we expected a beautiful, clean place to stay. When we first arrived we walked through the house and found it to be in good condition and well decorated. We read the note on the refrigerator saying that there could possibly be rodents and other pests on the premises but because you are in the mountains, this is part of nature. On our second night staying there, we were all watching a movie and a mouse bolted across the living room area into the kitchen. My daughter who is freaked out about mice not only because she is terrified of mice but her twin babies were crawling all over the floor exposed to the rodent droppings and the diseases that mice feces carry. We then pulled back the furniture where the mouse came from we noticed not only food and trash but mice feces everywhere! Upon closely examining the remainder of the home we noticed mice feces were littered throughout the entire second floor. At this time it was nearing 11pm and we called the numbers posted on the refrigerator to try and get a mouse trap and the only person that answered was someone based in England. They told us there was nothing they could do to help us in our time of need. They assured us someone would call first thing in the morning. We were fortunate that the Vons grocery store had mouse traps. After spending over $20 of my own money, we set the traps and a few hours later caught the mouse. The next morning we were expecting a call but didn’t receive one. I then phoned Natural Retreats, the property management company in the morning and asked to speak with Justin the office manager but he was in a meeting and unavailable, so I left a message in regards to our problem with my name and number. As of over 24 hours later I have not received a phone call. Upon checking out at 10am the maintenance man arrived as we were leaving with mouse traps in hand. So apparently a message was received, just not to us. He was very nice and apologetic but I still expected a phone call from property management in which two messages were left. The maintence man did acknowledge there is a rodent problem due to being in the mountains. In their contract and disclaimers there is a clause of pests and rodents, but I feel that if they know there is a rodent problem, they should set traps inside the owners/cleaning closets that are permanently locked ( there is a large enough gap under these doos for mice to enter ), so the traps can be checked and reset for the future after each cleaning, so as to not bother the guests with noticeable rodents. My suggestion would be to train the cleaning staff to pull back all furniture and remove all trash and vacuum under furniture, wall to wall and visibly check for rodent feces. In this unit with light colored carpeting it is very easy to spot. As with most issues or problems that arise in our lives, especially in a service based industry, it’s not necessarily the problem that is the biggest issue itself but how that problem is handled. In this case it was handled extremely poorly. Not only was there a mice problem in these units but the communication breakdown and the extreme lack of customer service from the management company to follow up to my repeated phone calls. There needs to be accountability and proper customer service in these units that are owned and managed by a company in England. Though there is a US corporate office in Salt Lake City and a small local office in Mammoth, there must be quick and timely follow up to issues that arise in this area.

If you own a home on Cape San Blas and are looking for a management company to run your property, don't even try this company. I am one of many owners who grew tired of the upcharges to the Owners, the treatment given to the guests and treatment given to the contractors hired to perform maintenance. We couldn't fire them soon enough. By far the most unprofessional organization I have ever dealt with. Owners are dropping them by the day.

We rented through Natural Retreats a house in Cape San Blas Florida, Sunset Serenity and found it is anything but. You cannot see sunsets because there are houses crammed all around. Hot tub worked ok during the few hours in the week it didn’t rain (in the sunshine state haha.) During our stay the air conditioning didn’t work for two days including when we arrived. This is Florida in mid June and outside temps were almost 100. Garbage disposal didn’t work. Cable didn’t work for three days. Drawers fell out on your feet when opening. Grab handle in bathroom loose. Everything ratty and dirty and gross. Pool had dead snails and dead animals and debris. It rained and the carpet (yes carpet) on the outdoor upper deck was soaked and gross. I wouldn’t go on that deck anyway, the posts supporting it appear to be rotten. Dogs had chewed door frames. Furnished with old junk from goodwill, you could tell by the prices written on everything. We called natural retreats numerous times to fix and every time they acted like it was our fault and we were annoying them. Half the stuff never did get fixed and we spent most of the week either on the phone with Natural Retreats or having maintenance people in and out of our personal space. Oh did I mention this was supposed to be our vacation? Natural retreats offered us 10% off our next booking in return for all the hassle. Just made the whole experience even worse. What with the hurricanes, rain, garbage beach shacks, and shoddy unprofessional businesses, we won’t be doing Florida for a vacation and I suggest you find someplace else, too.

We stayed at the Merv Griffin Estate - the house and grounds were lovely and our estate manager William was amazing. Would stay there again!

I rented a house in Sun Valley for July 2017. It was represented as a 5-bedroom house but only had 4 bedrooms ( the fifth was a windowless room in the garage). During my stay an electrical fire (described as toxic by the fire department) between the 2nd and 3rd floors smoldered until it burst into flames. It could have endangered the life of a child asleep in the bedroom above. We couldn't find the source of the smell until it burst through the floor above. A toilet in the same third floor room was cracked and leaking into the kitchen below. When Natural Retreats (and its High Country agent in Sun Valley) were notified, they A. offered no compensation, B. suggested we move the child and his father to the windowless garage room, and C. eventually moved the pair to another High Country property. Upon my return home I had a lawyer send a letter to Natural Retreats to which they NEVER RESPONDED. My advice: stay as far as you can away from both companies.

This was our first time booking a vacation through Natural Retreats. We found a beautiful home at Lake Toxaway Country Club in NC. We booked in January 2017, and over the ensuing 6 months prior to our stay, we somehow got the week of our stay wrong in our heads and showed up on a Saturday a week early. The Coursey home was already booked from that Sunday, and when the property maintenance crew showed up on Sunday morning, we realized our mistake, but had family coming in from all over, and needed to make that week work. Natural Retreats was very helpful in getting us into another home they managed at the club. The cost was quite a bit more, but we bit the bullet and ponied up so we could have the week we had planned. Because the Coursey home, our original choice was so fantastic, and even better than we had hoped, we felt that Natural Retreats must have a rigorous vetting process and that all of their homes were very well maintained and indeed, luxury. This is were things went terribly wrong. After paying about 40% more for the McCord lakefront home, we arrived to find the home in less than satisfactory condition. First, the house was filthy. Cobwebs, dead bugs, crumbs and food scraps in kitchen drawers, dust piles under beds and furniture, and mouse traps under cabinets, in the living room and bedrooms. The windows, window sills, and blinds were caked with crud. There was also a horrible smell of mildew and dankness. Secondly, the furniture, beds, accessories, pillows, and decor was old, broken, and non-existent. I mean, the mattresses were so old, they sank in the middle. The master bed comforter was a sleeping bag. The sheets were cheap. The pillows were $5 Walmart specials. The towels were mildewed and faded/miscolored from being just plain OLD. There was no blender, not enough pots and pans, kitchen utensils were old and mismatched. All the knobs on the dressers were broken. Appliances were dated and dirty. Some door locks were gone. Lakeside furniture was falling apart with nails sticking out, and dangerous. There were exposed TV and cable wires. Lamps were missing lampshades. The shower door in the master did not close properly, and the fixtures in some bathrooms were coming loose. We felt like we were the first people to stay there in a long time. We did not get a good nights sleep the entire week. Once we got in there, we communicated with Amanda Reid from Natural Retreats with some of the issues, and I must say, she was wonderful with getting us some new towels and a blender, so Natural Retreats does have some pretty good people. Even Alan, the maintenance fellow was very pleasant and understanding. This home should have NEVER been allowed into the line up at Natural Retreats. It is not a luxury home. We are not snobs, and can deal with a few inconveniences, but this place was filthy! Just because the McCord home was lakefront, and maybe a higher value piece of real estate, does not make it an upgrade. It was clearly a downgrade to us. And when we asked for a partial refund, we were flatly denied. It seems that Natural Retreats either cannot hold their property owners to any kind of standard and demand price breaks for clearly substandard upkeep, or, they are unwilling to fight for their PAYING customers. In my opinion, they are hurting their own brand by maybe offering quantity over quality. Buyer BEWARE! So, Natural Retreats local personnel may get 4-5 stars, but the McCord home gets a 1. The Coursey home gets a 5++...too bad we only got one night there. This site won't let us add pictures proving our point, but you can see them on my FB page.

This company is horrible to deal with as a renter of their properties. We rented a house by the name of Cape Oasis in Cape San Blas, Florida in 6/2017. The first night, an adult that was with us on the trip crawled into bed.....into a puddle of urine where someone before us had "wet the bed" so apparently, house keeping had not even changed the sheets. We called the Manager out to the house. They just brought us sheets in a big bag and said "we could change the sheets". Due to all the rain that we had while we were there, the basement bathroom flooded. They sent out a plumber, after 5 hours of us waiting on them at the house, and he fixed the toilet but did not clean up the water.....the carpet in that bedroom was completely soaked. Toward the end of our week long stay, the toilet in the master bathroom upstairs broke. We immediately called the management company and they said they didn't have anyone on call, so we went the remainder of the week with no master bathroom. I have tried contacting them 3 times since we returned home. I've also put everything in an email and sent to the General Manager. Lesa Edwards has STILL not returned any of my calls or responded to my email. DO NOT rent through this company!!!!

I tried to work with them on a property in Sun Valley and it was miserable. They did not get the property listed in time for my deployment, they never actually rented the property, and they wanted way too much money for listing fees and photography. They engage in petty overcharging for maintenance and send bills in error. They are bugging me about a $25 charge a year later that all parties involved disagree with. Just a terrible company that does not care about their clients.