NTB128 Beyond the Blue

Great location, but this house is in serious need of TLC

Beyond the Blue was a beautiful house and the space was great for the part of our group that got to stay there. The pool and the media room were a huge hit as well. We just wish we had lights at the pool during the evening hours. The reason for some of our low ratings had nothing to do with the house itself. We were scheduled to stay at a different property through Vacasa upon arrival. We had just received our key code and as we were pulling onto the island at 3:30 (check in was at 4:00) after 6 hours of driving we received a phone call from Vacasa telling us that our house was no longer available. We were quite shocked and thought we would be temporarily displaced due to a mechanical issue at the property. However, we were given two choices. We could either be refunded and return home, or they could offer us two houses for our group (they did not have a house large enough for all of us). Long story short we took the two houses while only having a brief amount of time to see if they were suitable. As we headed for both of those properties we were then told we had to wait now until 4:30 before going to the properties as they were not ready. Half of our group did get to enjoy being ocean front and having private pool access as we had expected with the original property, but the other half of our group had to stay in a different house about 5 miles away. This house although nice as well, was not ocean front (about 4 house rows back), and it did not offer a pool. While our group did manage to get together as much as we could during the week, it was not what we were prepared for, or expected. We were told we would be refunded the difference in cost, which we were a week later. However, we did reach out to Vacasa and felt as if we should be accommodated further. After many calls to them during the week, they did not get back to us until we had returned home. Vacasa told us that they felt they had accommodated us very well and there was nothing more they would do for us. This is the second time now that Vacasa has inconvenienced us with our vacation stays. We have vacationed on Topsail Island for 40 years, and we vacation with about 80 people total. Due to the inconvenience of our week we are not unable to book properties close by the large group of people we vacation with every year for next year. Needless to say Vacasa let us down yet again, and we will do our very best not to book with them in the future.

Great location!

Master bedroom was laid out to where you can see the sunrise as you wake up in the mornings.. Beautiful!! Landscaping was very exceptionally good in front of the house and in and around the pool.

Views, location, quality of the home , exceptional!

Upon arrival, the home looked as described. Beautiful ocean views, and a great location. Unfortunately, that is where the positives end. We booked this home for our wedding months in advance, as the listing says “wedding friendly” in the title of the property. All guests flew in from out of state to celebrate and stay at the home. We soon began to find out why that was a bad idea. To start, the top floor primary bedroom had inoperable air conditioning. During the days it was 80+ degrees in our room according to the thermostat. We were willing to look past that and enjoy the stay in the beginning and try to enjoy our wedding even though my soon to be wife and I were sweating through the nights. We had to purchased a box fan as a way to sleep semi comfortably. At least our guests had A/C on the 2nd floor. Secondly, the pool area: rats were seen running about the pool area and there was no lights in or around the pool which caused an issue for our reception plans which were scheduled to be around the pool and patio. And then the real nightmare happened, the reason I will never use Vacasa again and will advise all others to use a different company. Upon returning to the house from a beach day around 5pm we found all the bathrooms on the 2nd floor were backed up with urine and feces overflowing the bathtubs/showers and spilling out onto the floor and carpet of the bedrooms. Ruining clothes & suit cases of our guests, not to mention the foul smell and disgust. We fumbled through the unintuitive app and we attempted to contacted Vacasa customer support immediately via call and chat. After several minutes of hold music and un-responded to chat messages, we finally got a hold of someone to report the issue and ask for solutions. After explaining the severity of the issue, Vacasa sent out a gentleman to assess the damage and major plumbing issue which took 30-45 minutes. The gentlemen was very kind and told us he could not fix the problem because he was not a certified plumber and did not have the tools. Then proceeded to tell us we could not use the facilities in the home until the issue was fixed, which was potentially days away. He got us the name of Issac with Vacasa who promised to call us with a solution promptly. After another hour, Issac did not call. We had to call back and fumble through automated messages and other reps who had less than stellar customer service and no answers or assistance on what to do. The feces and urine continued to leak into the bathrooms as the sewer water was rising. At this point the backed up sewage had soaked through the floor and baseboards and was leaking on my vehicle a floor below in the garage area. We finally got a hold of Issac and asked for a plumber and cleaner to come that night or alternative accommodations. He told us that alternate accommodations are not an option and recommended we stay in the home with no working restroom and feces/urine soaked floors. After many minutes of pleading