Villas On the Lake

Being close to lots of activities was a real plus. The Villas felt spacious and pleasant, more like staying in an apartment, and the staff were friendly. It’s pretty basic, though, with no maid service or restaurant on site. Since our visit two years earlier, they’d added DVD movies and Wi-Fi. The carpet was filthy and looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in years. Some real renovations would make this five stars.

We stayed because moving wasn’t an option, and ended up spending most of our time downstairs, going up mainly to sleep and use the bathroom. It was a miserable way to spend our 31st anniversary. We’ve shared timeshares in Arizona, Hawaii, Hilton Head, Branson, San Diego, and other places, and have never encountered such persistent filth. The property is old, sure, but this was long-standing dirt, not just age. The apartment had plenty of space, which made the condition all the more disappointing. Dead roaches and bugs were left around after extermination, the fridge was filthy inside and out, and I had to scrub it before I could put our food away. The carpet was stained and so dirty I kept something on my feet. The living room sofa and chairs had a slick buildup of grime, so we covered them with the bed sheets before sitting down. The downstairs patio blinds had food caked on them, and blinds on the windows and patio doors upstairs were broken or missing pieces, leaving privacy compromised. There were other problems too. Two stove burners wouldn’t work for two days because they’d been pushed in incorrectly. The upstairs toilet kept running every few minutes, and a faucet knob in the master bedroom vanity was broken and perched on a screw. There were no curtains, which was fine, but the damaged blinds weren’t. The manual threatens fines for infractions, including after-hours calls except for emergencies like a fire or burst pipe. When I called after my walkthrough to request a clean apartment, management said none were available. We’d arrived early, before most people seemed to have checked in. The manager initially got defensive, talked over me, and said the place was simply old. I explained again that the built-up dirt was the problem. She said staff clean before guests arrive and maintenance does another walkthrough. About five minutes after the call ended, the property manager called back and offered to send the cleaning services manager to look at everything. That didn’t solve anything for us. A cleaning woman arrived about half an hour later with a few spray bottles and asked what needed cleaning. The place would have taken both of us working nonstop for hours just to reach basic cleanliness. We could have left, losing our RCI exchange fee, groceries, gas, and the anniversary celebration we’d planned, then driven an hour and a half home. Instead I cleaned the refrigerator right away because our food was in a cooler and needed to be refrigerated or frozen. I explained that to the property manager. For a place with this much potential, the lack of even minimal upkeep was unacceptable, especially during COVID-19. The stay ruined our anniversary.

The front desk woman was very rude, though the maintenance men were nice. They seemed limited by what they had to work with. We rented two three-bedroom condos, and both had filthy walls with peeling paint, stained carpets, and blinds in rough shape. The air conditioning failed twice in one unit; they gave us a fan to dry the carpets, but it was noisy and only blew air along the floor. There was no lake access or whirlpool.

A huge roach crawled out from under the sink, and that was enough for me to leave. The bathrooms seemed never to have been cleaned, the carpet was filthy, the sheets were stained, and paint was peeling all over. It was absolutely disgusting and should be condemned. I’ll never come back. If negative stars were possible, I’d give them.