Sugar Mountain Vacation Rentals by Vacasa

We rented a house in NC Sugar Mountain. The house is beautiful. Very few things that we did not found in the house and we needed.. and Vacasa reps were right there to help us! Abby was wonderful, she sent the stuff we needed right away. I own a motel so I know that you cannot always blame everything on the management. There is a lot of disrespectful renters that dont take care of a house like the owners expect. We texted with them late at night and they quickly responded. We really appreciate that. I recommend to future renters to do a walk through the house upon arrival and take pics of issues that you found to prevent unfair deposit holds.

The team at Vacasa made the process of renting out our first property so easy. Jesse was beyond helpful, giving us so much helpful advice and the photos taken were amazing! Guests are so happy about the property and we are for the overall experience. I am also blown away about the Vacasa algorithm and owner portal that makes it so easy to manage everything.

Honestly had a pretty good experience. Rented slopside sugar and despite the 3 star reviews, was fairly clean. Customer service was generally on top of things as well.

The only problem I had is that there wasn't enough towels for 10 people but thankfully my niece brought laundry detergent and bought extra wash clothes and towels. Toilet upstairs didn't want to go down good. Other than it was great. Don't follow gps it will have you going in circles lol.

We visit this unit often and like the unit. . I was disappointed that the floors looked dusty, The oven was extremely dirty and dishes had not been unloaded. Obviously , there were stains on the dinning chair fabric, a broken towel holder, and the sliding windows to the deck were dirty. We will continue to stay here in hopes that our return in April will have seen some improvement. The pots and pans need to be replaced, the iron skillet was in rough shape and the entire apartment a little disheveled .

As we have used various rental platforms traveling around the world, we have never encountered as many problems, as we have had using Vacasa. First, this is not a hotel property, they are condominiums. So, there are no desk services. Upon arrival, unit number was not included in text information. So, we went to an obvious Vacasa rental. Gained entry with text code, and to our mortification it was not our rental. Relieved that no one was there, but later thinking how many problems that this could cause! Contacted Vacasa for appropriate rental unit, and then did receive an email with all information. Again to our mortification there was construction happening above us. These things have to happen at sometime, but a notification would have been appreciated. Again contacted Vacasa, and they acted ignorant of the situation. As a contractor, we know that these services have to be reported to the associations and permits have to be pulled. Furthermore, the porch that “boasts mountain views” was completely ruined with construction debris and there was scaffolding as our view. This too was reported, along with the fireplace not working. Vacasa did not fix, and only follow up on mid Sunday; day before check out!
The rental was not thoroughly cleaned, water filter needed to be changed. There were no toiletries provided, as included in info and there were a good deal of steps to lower level, not included in info. With Vacasa you are signing rental agreements to up hold your end, and ours was a non refundable. So, no assurance is provided to the renter, when you don’t get what you paid for!

My family and I stayed in a house managed by Vacasa this weekend and I was less than impressed. We will start with the positives: the location of the property we were at and the view. The view almost made up for the fact that the house is very old and clearly not taken care of. There is plenty of space and beds in the house for a family, another positive. Also, plenty of seating on the deck.

Now, to the negatives. Every screen door in the house was held together by duct tape. One would hope the $200 plus cleaning fee would allow for the replacement of screens but I guess not. Most of the windows did not open or could not open because the wood frame was disintegrated to the point that it fell apart if you touched it. The shower curtains had black (assuming mold) stains on them. Again, the $200 plus cleaning fee doesn’t replace shower curtains? The blinds in our bedroom didn’t work so we couldn’t open them to see the view at the risk of them falling on us. The spare blankets in the house were crumbled up and shoved in drawers and smelled musty. Most of the lamps did not work despite their being 4 of them in the bedroom.

When we first arrived the hot tub did not work. The number we called led us to a call center and not an actual person so it took about a 30 minute song and dance phone call to actually get in touch with someone who lives in the area. Once we were able too they came out and fixed the hot tub but we lost 2 nights of use and were not offered compensation for our time lost. We will be booking rentals directly with owners from now on as we can tell the management company cares more about quantity of money and renters versus quality of the homes they’re offering.

Renter's and Owners Beware!
Very disappointed with the condo we rented unit 2907 Sugar Top Resort from Vacasa in Banner Elk , Nc we feel like we were misled as to when the condo was located this is 6 time we have visited this resort I always vette the pictures to make sure we book on the Grandfather Mountain side. I stay here especially to get sunrise photographs with views of Grandfather Mountain. All the images on the vbro site show the grandfather side of the building and also a view of grandfather mountain. There is no images of the actual view in the photos of this condo. The view is a straight on ugly view of the ski lift and condos rooftops from the west side. The verb-age and photos lead you to believe that the view is from opposite side of building. After contacting Vacasa we were told that the local Vasaca office at 106 sugar mountain drive in Banner elk, NC would not agree to see if we could change us to a Grandfather mountain side condo. The resort is mostly empty the weekend we are here. I hate to say this but since Vacasa has taken over a lot of the rentals at this resort we will not be booking anything thru this company again possibly not returning to Sugar Top if Vacasa is the only rental option. if you plan a stay at SUGAR Top resort be very careful if booking thru this company or you too will be disappointed. To add to the issues The unit above us had some sort of water leak and It leaked into the master bath room actually bubbled up ceiling and bubbled paint off three of the walls in bathroom the Resort maintenance was very good and helpful. Vacasa never even tried to contact us. They are literally less than 5 mins down road in Banner elk.

We stayed 1/1 - 1/6.
This is a hit/miss rental agency. If you’re lucky enough to get a clean rental with everything working then good. You could also get a filthy one that you need to finish cleaning yourself even though the “cleaning company” was still there after you arrived for your scheduled check-in time.

One of our cars arrived around 4 PM (our scheduled check in time) we sent them ahead because we had a 2 month old infant with us and we wanted to make sure everything was set because it was 20° outside. At 4 PM the cleaners had just gotten there. No communication from Vacasa to relay the delay to our check in.

The second car arrived shortly after and had to feed the infant in the car so they could finish cleaning.

I am not sure how it takes 45 minutes to strip the sheets and wipe the counters and floors down because that’s all the cleaners did. We ended up being delivered towels later in the day and had to make all the beds our selves. The house was in poor condition and half way through our visit the internet stopped working. We washed all the dishes before use because they were filthy.

We tried multiple times to contact Vacasa but the local representative never responded.

Corporate did send out a boilerplate response to us one time but nothing came of it. We are still waiting to hear back. If you haven’t booked already then consider using another company other than the Vacasa in this area. It seems the management in this area is quite incompetent because this is not the first time it has happened to us but they seem to have a majority of the rentals on sugar mountain.

Drove 2 and a half hours to find a cabin that was $471 for two nights was never cleaned. Had to drive back home totaling over 5 hours. No compensation for this huge inconvenience other than an eventual refund. Won’t book through Vacasa again. Thanks for wasting our time.

House was not clean. Yard was not cut. Dishwasher not clean and was full of dirty stinking dishes. Stove was dirty. Front entrance blocked by construction with deep hole. Red tape put around site. Had to walk around house to get to main door. Notified company. All they offered was $40 off rate. A total refund is in order. I took pictures.

1/20/24 to 1/27/24
Property: Excellent, super comfortable.
Cleaning and customer service: Very bad. We had to wait to check in until 6:30 waiting for the cleaning, they never came. After a 13 hour trip and with a small child I had to come to clean up another's mess and they sent me to wash themselves at 8 the night bedding, sheets and corks for 8 people to be able to sleep and the towels the next day because they never came. Super bad experience with Vacasa. Bad service and bad attention.

I have stayed in countless Hotels, Motels, Air BnBs and VRBOs in my life. After a verification portal that does not work, neglecting my elderly mother, vomit streaks of food chunks on the toilet from the prvious tenant, food stains on the wall and curtain, lying to me and the general manager about cleaning, a manager raising their voice and interrupting me, the day cleaning crew leaving the door unlocked and wide open, dirtying our clean towels and not leaving more clean ones, spending over 6 hours of time on the phone with 9 different representatives, the previous tenant's semen caked on the comforter, all while declining any reimbursement for endangering my family and their health, my experience with Vacasa was hands down the worst experience with a rental I have ever had in my life. For the safety and security of my family, as well as others, I can only feel a moral obligation that I spread the word of my experience to ensure no one else has to endure what we went through.

Arrived at our check in time of 4 p.m. at 648 Briarcliff in Sugar Mountain NC. Door code would not work. We finally got a code that worked at 9 p.m. Got in and the house was trashed...dirty linens and trash everywhere. We are traveling with small children it was 20 degrees outside and once we got in we had to clean until 2 a.m. and still slept on beds with no sheets. The bunk bed broke as well. Luckily the oldest children were in the lower bunk and not injured. It is now 1 p.m. on day 2 of our vacation and no towels or linens have been provided, previous renters trash is still on the front porch. Horrible service so far.

If I could give ZERO stars, that would be my option even in the negative numbers. I found I was explosed to MOLD last December. They never ever even as much as responded. We thought it was also all the pet hair and uncleaned blanket that smelled like detergent, BUT since staying here my year was all about respiratory issues even now a year later, I had not had an allergic reaction of such magnitude. It is January and I’m now recovering again. Still will not acknowledge there is even a person that deals with “specific areas”. My saga still continues for me they could care less. I’m immunocompromised, so I always check the home review sadly I should have gone through the usual rental compamny but hindsight is 20/20.
*Skin rash within 3 days of being in the property IN A SNOW STORM UNABLE TO LEAVE DUE DO TO WINTER STORM.
*My reactive Asthma which I had not had issues with went into full gear, I hadn’t had a reaction like it since the age of 12 years old
*Face destroyed, unable to breathe, my kids also had a reaction so we had a limited supply of nebulizer medication we carry for emergency only mainly for kids. (I now have to carry an EpiPen since this happened
*numerous doctors visit to try and help: allergist/immunologist/asthma doctor, primary doctor, delayed medical treatment due to facial issue, for a neurological condition mind you. My kids, service dog, and even husband had reactions and we’ve all had issues all year, this in a pet free home. (Before you say anything I have a soft coated wheaten terrier who doesn’t shed and is always kept clean due to my allergies and now his).
*Dermatologist treatment for face, still ongoing
*Double pneumonia (viral and bacterial) along with bronchitis 3 days in the hospital
*Edema due to the inflammation causing my lymphatic system to basically stop again after a long battle that I was starting to win, no immune system, no defense.
*Asthma attacks that I had to drive to urgent care for steroid, I wasn’t supposed to be on for long. Now I’m on a steroid inhaler
*Due to low immune response and school starting I had RSV and went severely septic (lost of taste STILL a couple months later it’s still distorted, and after I was finally able to start growing my hair now it’s falling off SEPSIS aftermath). 3 days in the hospital and even more super strong antibiotics (the first few rounds had my immune system open to anything to this day a year and a month later).
*Allergic reaction while in hospital due to body being unable to react well to what used to be a minor allergen (another reason for an EpiPen, but already had it thanks to the beginning of the reaction). Now all my allergies are exaggerated basically by my body.
*3 weeks after leaving hospital from RSV I was diagnosed with influenza B, which just heads up, this is the bad one with all the body aches bells and whistles)
*my medication has had to be late every single time this year for my neurological conditions due to my skin showing problems or I’ve been in the hospital and they have to wait at least one week, but the shortest period was two weeks, then 6 weeks late, then 4 weeks late, now I’m waiting for my dose which was due 3 weeks ago.

SHOULD HAVE SAVED THE $4200 I paid to have my immune system destroyed in a week. Thank you Vacasa you are THE most! (Not sure it’s clean for the internet comments so will not say what you’re the most at) But definitely not in communication and taking responsibility. Oh! And lying to my credit card company when your records show something completely different. Great job!
RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN use other companies so many good ones that are so responsive is a breeze to work with them to fix them problem, you’re happy with less than two stars. Hmmm wonder why?!?

We booked a house through Air B&B that was managed by Vacasa. We arrived at 3:45 pm, our code wouldn’t work until 4. Understandable but when you have children and the cleaning people are clearly gone what is 15 mins going to hurt. When we finally got in, the smell coming from the kitchen was horrible. There were still dishes in the dishwasher, and towels soaking wet in the washer. I feel like this is part of the previous renter’s cleaning fee but it gets worse. The bottom bunks didn’t even have sheets and the comforter smelled of urine. When we reached out to Vacasa about these issues, no resolution was offered. Just a simple sorry for the inconvenience we will work toward fixing these problems in the future. That obviously doesn’t fix this situation so note to self, never use or rent through this property manager. I honestly feel bad for the homeowners paying for such an incomplete property management service.

Pros: it seems many people have had issues with cleaning but our place was really clean, the customer service has been really good and helpful. however, I shouldnt be having to call them everyday. They were done with cleaning and sent us a message about 3 hours early saying the place was ready.

Cons:
-wrong door code (had to call to get one)
-almost all of the batteries were bad in the remotes, light remotes, etc
-never figured out how to use TV, I dont think there was HBO or Netflix like it said
-smoke detector went off the first 24 hours beeping saying low battery and had to wait for someone to come out

Worst experience ever. There is no way of getting in touch with the “local” Vacasa if you have issues. All your calls and texts go to a call center in which you are told they will contact the local Vacasa on your behalf. That never happens. You will not receive a call back. Many amenities in our house did not work. We had to drive to the local Vacasa building. The only person there was a housekeeper. He made a call for me and informed me that we were notified of the not working hot tub. We were NEVER told this. FYI for other renters- this is a legal violation.
If an advertised amenity doesn’t work then you are legally able to get money back!
Just please save your time, energy, money, frustration and don’t use this Vacasa. Nor stay at “Icicles” at 146 mossy creek ln. It’s old, paper thin walls and floors, smells musty, kitchen is not well stocked and a lot of things are broken.

RUN!!! STAY AWAY FROM ANY VACASA RENTAL PROPERTY!!! If I could’ve give 0 stars, I would have. If you book through any third party app and get a confirmation from this company, CANCEL IMMEDIATELY and find a different rental group or individual property owner!

Our family of three (2 adults and our 2 year old) stayed in a mountain rental of theirs at the beginning of December 2022 and it was a total nightmare right from the beginning with the house and their customer service. We arrived to the home a few hours after our check-in time and the house was bitterly cold inside at 55° with it being about 20°outside. We thought that maybe the heat was left off by mistake. Wrong!

We had to heat the house the first night using the oven and the warmest it got was 63°. The next morning, the house was back down to 58°. We just had to leave the house and drive around to get ourselves and our toddler out of the cold.

The technician that came out told us they had been trying to get a professional HVAC company to the house for weeks to fix the issue. SO THEY RENTED US THE HOUSE IN THE WINTER KNOWING THERE WERE SIGNIFICANT HVAC ISSUES WITH THE HOME!!!

They brought us space heaters to “correct” the heating issue, which we were grateful for because we were freezing, but I can’t imagine that running multiple space heaters isn’t a huge safety concern. The breakers flipped in the house multiple times during our stay and made us very nervous the whole time.

The internet was also out when we arrived and could not be fixed until the next day. This is typically not a big deal for us in a rental, but we vacationed here to spend time as a family and watch Christmas movies together, but we couldn’t even do that our first night.

The “local management team” as the call center likes to say, is absolutely useless and nearly impossible to reach. I’ve called multiple times to speak about a full refund, which I feel is very reasonable given the circumstances during our stay. I spoke with a manager named Anthony once for a few minutes. He couldn’t care less about the issues we had and it was obvious in his tone, attitude, and lack of follow up with me as he promised to do. He was supposed to speak with his manager (Sam) and one of them were going to call me. I’ve yet to hear anything from either one of them after several weeks and multiple calls. Through the numerous calls I had to make, multiple representatives told me they would be calling back and I only ever had one person that followed through on that. Some of the worst customer service I’ve ever experienced.

I waited to post this review in hopes they would rectify the horrible experience we had at their property and with their company’s terrible customer service. I have zero confidence that will happen at this point so I proceeded with leaving my honest review.

As I said to start, RUN! I will never rent another property from them ever again. Worst vacation and “hospitality” experience we’ve ever had. Rent a place through anyone else other than Vacasa!