Incredible location but unfortunate experience
Our family of 6 stayed at Casa Los Osos March 9-16. We are very familiar with Sayulita having visited before and rented a home in Los Delfines. Our friends stayed in Casa Los Osos in May and didn't have any issues.
Upon arrival we were greeted by Lia who showed us around. She had zero patience with our small children who were excited and wanted to show me things and just generally be happy about being there. I do realize she was attempting to show me the home, but her eye rolling and lack of graciousness for her smaller guests was ill received.
On the first day we didn't have hot water in any of the showers or sinks. I let Lia know this and she came the next day and said that the boiler had been off. She turned it on. At this point we had tepid water in the showers, still cold in the sinks.... but we decided to roll with it.
We were approached by Lia to hire the housekeeper for massages and to cook us dinner. We obliged. The massages were the next day and were very good. The dinner that was cooked for us was very expensive, even for U.S. standards, but was good and served well.
On our 3rd day our hot water was gone, again. We let Lia know and she came to the house the next day and tried to tell us that it was hot. It most certainly was not. We didn't even care if it was tepid at that point, we just didn't want cold. She made my husband hold his hand under the tap and said "There, it is hot. Don't burn yourself!" It was very cold. Not to be rude, and very frustrated, my husband just told her it was ok and that she could not worry about it again.
We were often out of towels so I did the laundry (towels) myself. The laundry facility was filthy. I did my best to clean it up a bit, but I often found our personal laundry tossed on the dirty floor. Most of the bed linens had large holes.
The home itself was cleaned daily, but we found that all that was done was a sweeping and cleaning of our toilets. At the home in Los Delfines, we were allowed to flush toilet paper down the toilets. We were told not to at Los Osos. I do understand it is Mexico, so that was ok with us. However, the trash was not always emptied, so it did begin to smell.
All of the above was unfortunate, but certainly not enough to make us angry. The home is very pretty and you cannot beat the location.
However, the following incident left me feeling disappointed and inclined to leave a review. We used a local nanny that we have used before for our 3 year old son. She also grocery shopped for us and helped us with some other items. We trust her (obviously, we trust her with our children) and really like her as a person. One day after she had babysat our son, Lia, the home manager was there trying to figure out the water situation. She asked me if we had used a babysitter in the home. I said yes, we had (she knew we had, she had been there when she was there.) Lia then said we couldn't use her anymore because the housekeeper had seen her in my bathroom looking through my things and that she was pretty sure she had taken some of my belongings. Lia then indicated if we needed a babysitter that we were to use the housekeeper (the housekeeper does not speak any English and I am not comfortable with that considering our son is 3.) I was floored. NOTHING was missing, and my daughter had been in the home that whole time, in that room, reading. She said that our nanny had never even been in my bathroom and had been with our son the entire time playing at the pool and in the living room. If there had been a rule that we could not have a nanny I would have gladly followed it. To accuse someone of stealing and be given an option to hire an employee of the home instead left us very sad about the whole situation.
On the second to last day the bathroom sink fell completely through to the floor while my son was washing his hands. At this point we felt like we really needed to contact Lia again, because obviously that and the 3 outlets that had come out of the wall with exposed wires were dangerous. Although I didn't want to contact her, we did. The sink was fixed.
On the day of check out, which is 11 a.m., the water in the home was COMPLETELY shut off at 9 a.m. We couldn't shower, wash our hands, nothing. Facing a long travel day without being able to be showered.
Please know that we travel a lot and that this has been our very first bad experience. We love to explore and embrace new cultures and love Sayulita. We can go with the flow quite well. It is just my feeling that for the $2600.00 we spent on the home for the week that it was not at all up to the rate charged.
I followed up with a phone call to the owner and she could not have been nicer. She was extremely glad that I had brought these issues to her attention and said that she would deal with them. If you are looking to rent this home, I would contact her personally and see if these things have been dealt with. It is beautiful, fabulous location and has a good vibe. It just needs some pretty big issues dealt with.
I would rent this home again, surprisingly. IF the same staff is no longer there and everything had been fixed. Do your due diligence.
[Read more]