Fajardo Vacation apartment rental with beach/lake nearby, internet access, air con and walking

First and foremost if you have been to 40 countries and think that hot water is practically a human right (especially in warm climates like the Caribbean and of course barring out hotels which get their utility bills subsidized by the governments to entice them to operate in their country) and you have enjoyed hot water in all of them then I question your sincerity. I have also travelled extensively including numerous Caribbean countries and unless staying in a hotel which is not the case here, I have not always enjoyed that “human right” as you call it. Certainly not at the rates I offer. Now I must state that I have always strived to address any reasonable concerns from guests and since you were a guest at my property it is my duty to follow through. I stand behind my knowledge and state that there are typically only a few months of the year that the water does not already come out of the pipes as warm water and believed it to be sufficient. While I cannot speak for all of my guests I sincerely believe that reasonable guests would prefer to enjoy the reasonable rates and great accommodations. However the apts. will be retrofitted with water heaters shortly and the rates increased a bit to cover the additional utility consumption. This will be done 1 apt at a time until all have the additional convenience. Now, I will state emphatically that I had not received any requests from you to hook up hot water in your unit or any request for anything at all, much less a repeated request. As a matter of fact the only communication between us apart from making the reservation was when you showed up to check in and we addressed the issue of you bringing an extra person that was not revealed in your booking. This of course is frowned upon as it does not allow for the preparation of the unit for the additional person. As a courtesy to you bedding was brought to the unit within minutes of you checking in and placed on the futon for you since you were not in the apt. The bedding is laundered after each guests stay and you can even smell the freshness emanating from the bedding. Under no circumstances is bedding repeated which is why on initial presentation to you it is difficult to fathom wet food on them. Again, why did you not alert me to this if indeed this were so? I certainly would not sleep on bedding if it were in the condition you state but rather demand clean/fresh bedding. To address your claim of filthy silverware, I am surprised you did not alert me to that fact. If it were indeed in the condition you stated a simple text message could have had that issue resolved immediately. You certainly would not be expected to clean your silverware on its initial use but begin with clean silverware and I clearly remember asking if everything was to your satisfaction and you replied yes. I clearly remember telling you if there were any problems to alert me and until this review had received none. Clearly this is not something that can be addressed a month later. To address the bathroom door not being able to close… The unit you stayed in is setup like a like a master bedroom and a separate eating/lounge area. There is a door which can seal the bedroom with the bathroom off completely from the other areas to make it completely private. That door has been checked and found to be in proper working condition. The other door to the bathroom is from inside the bedroom itself. This door was also checked and yes it closes. I will concede though that you were correct about it not remaining locked and you could push on it and it would easily open. It needed a simple adjustment that took about 2 minutes to fix. Had you alerted me prior to you leaving it could have been taken care of during your stay with minimal fuss. Helter skelter would imply it was installed hastily but you should know that new construction sometimes has shifting and adjustment that occurs and perhaps could have occurred in this case. However it did indeed require attending to and it has been remedied. Parking as advertised is free and on first come first serve basis for the sidewalk in front of the unit (can accommodate 3 cars) or you can park on the street which is literally no more than 50 feet from the furthest unit. This is evident from the pics which you can view of the property on Trip advisor. Even in a hotel I highly doubt you can park this close to your unit. The gate is always accessible as parking is not allowed in front of the gate on the sidewalk. Also from the pics you can see that even with one car inside the gate is easily accessible from the inside as well. The yard space is enough to accommodate 2 cars side by side but parking is not allowed on the inside without permission and more than 1 car on the inside is never permitted. To address your girlfriend hated the bed…I’m sorry to hear but I would need more specific details to address any problem stated. I guess no matter what…you can never please everyone. The bed is a simple bed exactly as depicted in the photos and the memory foam mattress on it gives it a luxurious feel. I have had only 1 complaint about the bed in the past and it was quickly remedied. This was to address the fact that the mattress was enclosed in a plastic mattress protector which made it hot and it was replaced with a cotton mattress protector which solved that problem. The mattress is practically new by the way and reason for the mattress protector is simple. It can be removed and laundered or replaced if it gets soiled by an unfortunate accident. To do the same for the mattress would be quite costly given the type of mattress it is. You can do your research. The motion sensitive light of which you speak has to be the one in the yard as there is only one and yes if there are guests returning at different hours to their units, the lights will turn on and go off by themselves after no further motion is detected. In addition to the blinds on the entry door, the units have dark curtains which you can draw close to place the unit in darkness but I will concede that I had the lights checked and the duration that they came on for was excessive so this has now been adjusted to a short duration of somewhere around 3 minutes which should favorably accommodate ease of entry/egress to/from the unit. It is a convenience to our guests and for those that are unappreciative of this feature it is equipped with a wall switch below the light that a simple flick will disable it if the convenience is not desired. Again if you were perturbed by this feature all you had to do was communicate this to me and I could have flipped the switch off. That would have been fixed for you in about 3 seconds. I will not be removing the motion activated security light as many guests have enjoyed having it, especially the long term guests. Regards, Management

Dear guest, As you have negatively reviewed my listing on trip advisor it is my duty to address your complaints and attempt to resolve them if warranted for future guests not to share in your experience. I will try to address each of your complaints as stated in your review. Please note that you and your boyfriend each left a separate review for the same stay so there a 2 reviews posted with similar complaints. To address…,” I do expect everyday necessities, i.e., cleanliness, hot water, and responsiveness.” I pride myself on providing the everyday necessities that are advertised and have not failed in any way to do so. When you checked into the apt. I was with you and you were asked if everything was to your satisfaction, to which you responded affirmatively. You were also told to contact me if there were any problems and you never did. If you had done so during your stay it could have been addressed. You showed up to check in with an extra person that was not listed on the reservation (your son) and of course the apartment had previously been made ready for 2 persons as per your reservation. Within 5 minutes bedding was sent to your unit for the futon to be utilized as a bed for him. Not because of some nonexistent text. Unless of course you texted someone else in error. There was no one present in the unit and the bedding was left on the futon in case you needed it (again, within 5 minutes). The futon folds flat to become a full sized bed and yes a full size bed can accommodate 2 people depending on size which means in addition to the full sized bed in the bedroom that would add up to 4 persons for that unit. The advertisement clearly states this and there are pics of everything in the units complete with descriptions. What you see is exactly what you get. No pretense necessary and no surprises. All of the information is there complete with photos so that potential guests are aware of the accommodations. I do believe if anything were different it would have been revealed in previous reviews. You mentioned that “I started to make the futon and noticed wet food and white like drool stains on the comforter. I was disgusted that somebody would pull dirty bedding to provide to a rental customer.” I too would be appalled if this happened to me and certainly shocked to see something like this in a property that I manage. Unfortunately I was not notified and certainly was not afforded the opportunity to see such a problem hence deal with it. Upon any guest checking out, All bedding is removed from the beds whether used or not and laundered/cleaned which would make it impossible to provide a customer with bedding with wet food and or drool stains. The pillow on the couch is a decorative pillow which is not laundered that is simply not done with decorative pillows but yet I have not been able to observe the bloodstain to which you refer. I read in your review that “your boyfriend reached out to the property owner several times on various different days, and NOT one response”… but yet I can find no record of any communication from you or your boyfriend to collaborate this and have no recollection of any verbal/written requests from either of you. Forgive me for drawing any conclusions based on this but it does seem strange. “We couldn’t disinfect the dirty dishes provided to us from the property owner because we had no hot water.”… To address this I will echo what I stated in response to your boyfriends subsequent review for the same stay: I am surprised you did not alert me to that fact. If it were indeed in the condition you stated a simple text message could have had that issue resolved immediately. You certainly would not be expected to clean your silverware on its initial use but that you would begin your stay with clean silverware and I clearly remember asking if everything was to your satisfaction and you replied yes. I clearly remember telling you if there were any problems to alert me and until reading your review had been unaware of any problems. In your review you stated “Finally, this is not a middle-class neighbor this is borderline ghetto (yes, I know this PR but I don't stay in the ghetto in Mexico - poorly advertised). This is not an area I felt safe to walk anywhere to as stated in the property managers description. I did not feel safe allowing my son to walk around the neighborhood. I did not feel safe while I was sleeping. I’m not sure of Trip Advisors Rules, but this property should not be listed on ANY website as a rental. Bottom-line, I am not trying to ruin the owners rental racketeer, but there are standards that people expect and the standards of this rental unit are well below par. I would just recommend that you TRUTHFULLY advertise the unit.” I will respond to this with one comment. There are many other reviews on this property, surely yours couldn’t possibly be the correct one and all the other guests be the wrong ones. I stand behind my listing with confidence and have many repeat guests. As a matter of fact the unit you stayed in is currently occupied by a repeat guest…and with no complaints. Regards, Management

Thank you for your review. I would like to point out that you checked in to the apartment at night between 7-8pm and left the door wide open for an extended period while your husband made multiple trips back and forth from your car in the street to the apartment, a fact that your husband admitted to when I came to investigate your complaint of mosquitoes in the apartment. At night in Puerto Rico and many places worldwide, during the rainy season mosquitoes come out at night and it is prudent not to keep your doors open and give the mosquitoes a chance to come into a residence. The apartments are equipped with window screens in case windows are left open but if the door is left open there is no way to keep mosquitoes out. The 2nd problem with the hot water is another thing. I received a call from you close to midnight about not having hot water in the apartment and while every effort is made to handle emergency situations promptly, not having hot water in Puerto Rico where the water temperatures at their coldest would be no lower than 74 degrees is I believe safe to say not considered an emergency that needs to be handled at such a late hour (close to midnight). The water temperature is in the 80’s most of the time and does not require heating. There is a water heater on the premises that would be turned on only for special circumstances and although I do not perform maintenance at the apartment I attempted to turn on the water heater just to accommodate you and thought all was fine. This was the initial night and you spent 2 additional nights and never advised me that what I did was ineffective. Had you alerted me to the fact that you still had no hot water I could have put in an on demand shower heater for your unit. I’m sorry you did not alert me to this fact but there really is nothing I can do for your discomfort without having prior knowledge. Thank you in advance for your understanding. Management