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I am Disappointed Exchange Unit Dirty at High End Captiva Resort

Panina

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I was so looking forward to this week. I traded into it over a year ago. Getting a prime winter week was a treat. I arrived a day late to South Seas as my prior week overlapped.

I am resting now before continuing to clean the unit. It was disgusting. Only once before in all my years of timesharing was a room this dirty. The difference was the other timeshare sent a cleaning crew to the unit at 9 pm at night. Here the front desk told me there was nothing they could do as it was a timeshare and they could connect me to the voicemail of the management company but someone probably wouldn’t get back to me today as they left a few minutes ago at 4:30. What happens if there is a real emergency? So I decided to just clean it myself, I always have cleaners with me.

There was hair in the bathroom sink. The faucet had toothpaste on it and the drains had that pink junk on it. The shower had this large brown stain and black particles on the floor tile. The stove top was dirty. There were hairs and dirt in the kitchen cutlery tray. There were crumbs, big ones too, on the counters and the paper towel came up with black dirt. Some of dishes were dirty, put them as usual in the dishwasher, still have to check the pots. The tea kettle was rusted. The sliding glass doors were streaked with a oily film. The baseboards were dusty with grime. All of this was easily seen and got cleaned with my cleaning. Of course I cleaned everything else. What surprised me were the floors were clean, that is usually where the problems is.

I am tired now and disappointed. I will follow up with the management company. I will also let II know. I took pictures thanks to my other half. I was cleaning awhile and when he got up from his nap he said take pictures, there was still enough dirt to take photos of. Even though I traded through II this is an hgvc affiliate and being an hgvc owner a unit shouldn’t be this way but more importantly you should have a way to contact management. Thinking now I should have called hgvc as I am a member, they might have been able to contact management.
 

breezez

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Hope you took pictures - Tell them you will post these disgusting photos on Trip Advisor unless they compensate you for cleaning your own villa in some way.

I have been is some places that were not cleaned the best but funniest one was WorldMark Pine Top. I start dishwasher and water goes every were around the door of unit. I call front desk maintenance guys shows up and said damn not another one. They had just fired a cleaning lady because she was lowering all the dishwasher doors and standing on them to put dishes in the cabinets and spring the doors of dishwashers in the process. Maintenance had it changed in about an hour.

At Reunion outside of Orlando, I go in my unit to find a toddler in the unit, with a Thomas the Train shirt on. I look all over and don't see anyone appearing to be missing a kid I knock on doors around our unit. Not their kid. We left our unit main door open in hopes some parent would see it and stop by. I am on the phone with the sheriff department when the mom finally shows up. I still am not sure how he got in the room unless he some how walked in their when the cleaning lady was in their.
 

silentg

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That’s just terrible, you should check with HGVC and II. No excuse for the treatment you are receiving.
I would be upset too!
We had a nice timeshare in Fort Myers Beach recently. But I too was worried it might not be what it looked like in the photos.
We always leave our timeshares clean or cleaner than when we arrive. Even though the housekeeping is supposed to clean when we leave. Hope you enjoy the rest of your trip, let us know what HGVC and II do for you?
Silentg
 

rapmarks

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Horrible,I have had this happen too.
At least we have some nice weather again.
 

Theiggy

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That’s so awful! I’m sorry this happened and I don’t understand how they don’t have housekeeping available!! Hope you enjoy the rest of the trip.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

BJRSanDiego

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Most of the timeshares that we've stayed in were fairly clean. And we've stayed in perhaps more than 50. The ones that were not acceptable were :

Worldmark Big Bear (Ca.) - My wife wiped things down with a Sani-wipe and she went through a half dozen and all were black. The spa was cloudy and we got a rash. It was closed AFTER we got the rash. Bacteria issue. WorldMark gave us a small tube of anti-biotic ointment. Wahoo!

Point at Poipu - We originally had a unit with water intrusion problems. One bath had no light and the interior wall was wet, the door jamb was wet and rotting and the room smelled like sewage. The second bathroom had a toilet w/o a wax seal so when the toilet was flushed liquid would come out from the base of the toilet. There were coffee cup rings on the floor next to the toilet. So we knew that the floor wasn't mopped. The next unit they moved us to had a dead AC unit (or were both of them dead?), a dead overhead lamp fixture that had to be replaced, sand on the floor, debris left in the fridge, etc. We had people working in our unit for perhaps 6 to 8 hours. So we lost a day of vacation. Diamond gave us a free week in Tahoe as compensation.

Welk Northstar (Truckee/Tahoe) - The carpets and floors were both absolutely filthy. The AC in the master didn't work the entire week. The engineers were in our unit perhaps 5 or 6 times for several hours over perhaps 4 or 5 days. They ended up putting a portable AC unit in the master only 3 feet from our bed. It sounded like a vacuum cleaner ALL NIGHT. It vented out an open window with flex plastic drier vent. I later found out that someone who posted on Tripadvisor had the same unit ONE YEAR EARLIER and had the EXACT same problem with the carpet and the AC. I wrote a review for TUG. They offered us a replacement week. We're keeping our fingers crossed that this time we won't have any similar issues.
 

CalGalTraveler

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Wow @Panina Sorry to hear about your issues. That just sucks. You go on vacation to get away from this.

Good idea to take photos and contact HGVC. This is not up to their standards. You should be compensated by management.

Is there a reason they couldn't they move you to a different unit?

I had similar cleaning issues at an AirBnB once - disgusting. The problem with AirBnB is that there are no other similar units to move to. Usually the ability to change units if you are dissatisfied is a benefit of timeshares.
 
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DannyTS

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Gross. This should certainly be brought to the attention of HGVC. Poor maintenance is one of the reason an affiliate can loose the contract with HGVC. I hope both sides will take this very seriously. I also hope you will receive a very decent compensation, I imagine this is not how you envisioned spending the first day of vacation.
 

WinniWoman

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Just wow! So sorry!

This happened to us only once when we had exchanged into Powhatten Plantation and arrived there near midnight. We had the road trip from hell and then to come into a situation like that in our condo was the icing on the cake. We called the front desk and they did send someone- but that person only vacuumed all the cereal that was all over the rug and then left. We were so exhausted that we just had to go to sleep at that point so we let it go.

This was long ago before the popularity of smartphones. Now if this were to happen to me today I would be snapping pictures and immediately be on Trip Advisor with them and my review!

But- unlike you, I would not do any cleaning. I would be demanding another unit, calling hgvc since you can't reach management. I am not for these places that have no one on staff should an issue arise. Just ridiculous.

I hope the rest of your stay goes much better.
 
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Panina

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Most of the timeshares that we've stayed in were fairly clean. And we've stayed in perhaps more than 50. The ones that were not acceptable were :

Worldmark Big Bear (Ca.) - My wife wiped things down with a Sani-wipe and she went through a half dozen and all were black. The spa was cloudy and we got a rash. It was closed AFTER we got the rash. Bacteria issue. WorldMark gave us a small tube of anti-biotic ointment. Wahoo!

Point at Poipu - We originally had a unit with water intrusion problems. One bath had no light and the interior wall was wet, the door jamb was wet and rotting and the room smelled like sewage. The second bathroom had a toilet w/o a wax seal so when the toilet was flushed liquid would come out from the base of the toilet. There were coffee cup rings on the floor next to the toilet. So we knew that the floor wasn't mopped. The next unit they moved us to had a dead AC unit (or were both of them dead?), a dead overhead lamp fixture that had to be replaced, sand on the floor, debris left in the fridge, etc. We had people working in our unit for perhaps 6 to 8 hours. So we lost a day of vacation. Diamond gave us a free week in Tahoe as compensation.

Welk Northstar (Truckee/Tahoe) - The carpets and floors were both absolutely filthy. The AC in the master didn't work the entire week. The engineers were in our unit perhaps 5 or 6 times for several hours over perhaps 4 or 5 days. They ended up putting a portable AC unit in the master only 3 feet from our bed. It sounded like a vacuum cleaner ALL NIGHT. It vented out an open window with flex plastic drier vent. I later found out that someone who posted on Tripadvisor had the same unit ONE YEAR EARLIER and had the EXACT same problem with the carpet and the AC. I wrote a review for TUG. They offered us a replacement week. We're keeping our fingers crossed that this time we won't have any similar issues.
Point at Poitou, how disgusting, sewage smell. The closest I came to that disgusting was what looked like a feces stain on the bathroom floor, again at a high end resort. Thinking about it my most modest resorts I own never had a cleanliness problem.
 

Panina

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Wow @Panina Sorry to hear about your issues. That just sucks. You go on vacation to get away from this.

Good idea to take photos and contact HGVC. This is not up to their standards. You should be compensated by management.

Is there a reason they couldn't they move you to a different unit?

I had similar cleaning issues at an AirBnB once - disgusting. The problem with AirBnB is that there are no other similar units to move to. Usually the ability to change units if you are dissatisfied is a benefit of timeshares.
I couldn’t get moved, there was no one to talk to. Front desk where I checked in told me there was nothing they could do as it was handles by timeshare management, who were gone. No call back from them this morning. I doubt there were any units available as it is prime time.

Compensation from HGVC I doubt, this is an affiliate but I will pursue and not let it go so hopefully they resolve the problem for the next guest. I believe this is an ongoing problem based on how dusty the door ledges and baseboards were.
 

Panina

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Gross. This should certainly be brought to the attention of HGVC. Poor maintenance is one of the reason an affiliate can loose the contract with HGVC. I hope both sides will take this very seriously. I also hope you will receive a very decent compensation, I imagine this is not how you envisioned spending the first day of vacation.
That’s my goal, for them to take this seriously. I am sure they will say we had it inspected by a supervisor after it was clean. A visual walk-in without really looking it would seem okay. My guess is there were lots of complaints previously on the tile floors as they were very clean and that is probably a focus, just a guess.
 

Panina

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Just wow! So sorry!

This happened to us only once when we had exchanged into Powhatten Plantation and arrived there near midnight. We had the road trip from hell and then to come into a situation like that in our condo was the icing on the cake. We called the front desk and they did send someone- but that person only vacuumed all the cereal that was all over the rug and then left. We were so exhausted that we just had to go to sleep at that point so we let it go.

This was long ago before the popularity of smartphones. Now if this were to happen to me today I would be snapping pictures and immediately be on Trip Advisor with them and my review!

But- unlike you, I would not do any cleaning. I would be demanding another unit, calling hgvc since you can't reach management. I am not for these places that have no one on staff should an issue arise. Just ridiculous.

I hope the rest of your stay goes much better.
I was so tired by the time I arrived I did not think of calling HGVC. They might not have done anything since it was outside their trade circle, they use RCI. This affiliate also uses II. I could have called II, they probably have a number for problems. I thought of all this after I cleaned. I was so grossed out no way I could stay and sleep without cleaning. Passed out after into a deep sleep.

This place is really nice and I will follow up but will not let it ruin this vacation. It just might have been one lousy cleaner, the others might be great.
 

dsmrp

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So sorry. Hope you will enjoy the remainder of your stay. And Captiva resort or exchange co. should comp you something. Sounds like an uneasy (uncooperative?) relationship between hotel and TS operations. Good you will let HGVC know of this issue.
 

Panina

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Never went back last night to checking the pots and pans, too tired from cleaning. Of course the dirt waited for me, they were dirty, both stainless steel and non stick. All the non stick were greasy to touch and even if I clean them unusable, scratched and worn.

They need to get their act together here. It’s a beautiful place to be and decorated beautifully. I am sitting on the screened in porch watching the golfers. Some one is hammering now, it’s Sunday, why??? At least the lawn mower noise is blocking the hammering noise, at least I think it’s a lawn mover. Got to laugh and smile, can hear the birds too.
 

WinniWoman

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Never went back last night to checking the pots and pans, too tired from cleaning. Of course the dirt waited for me, they were dirty, both stainless steel and non stick. All the non stick were greasy to touch and even if I clean them unusable, scratched and worn.

They need to get their act together here. It’s a beautiful place to be and decorated beautifully. I am sitting on the screened in porch watching the golfers. Some one is hammering now, it’s Sunday, why??? At least the lawn mower noise is blocking the hammering noise, at least I think it’s a lawn mover. Got to laugh and smile, can hear the birds too.

OMG! This is really a shame.

The only way I would be laughing would be with alcohol. LOL!
 

Jan M.

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Is this an HGVC property/unit? We've stayed at 5 different HGVC resorts here in Florida and have never had anything even remotely like your experience! The Plantation House and Plantation Beach Club at the South Seas Resort both on Captiva, Casa Ybel on Sanibel, Charter Club of Marco Island and twice for two weeks each time at Plantation Beach Club at Indian River in Stuart, FL.

The unit didn't get that dirty in just a week's use by other people. Most resorts have a checker who is supposed to look over the units before they are cleared for guests and he or she certainly didn't do their job! Makes me wonder if the previous occupant reported that the unit wasn't very well cleaned and no one made sure that information was passed on the resort manager. When you call if you don't get satisfaction make sure you get the name of the highest person in charge and let it be known that you will be posting on the appropriate Facebook page and Trip Advisor about your experience. That ought to get their attention.
 

Sugarcubesea

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I'm So sorry you had to deal with this mess @Panina . I would have been so mad if that's what I would have walked into...
 

mdurette

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Certainly not what anyone would expect at a high end/brand name affiliated resort. What you described is almost as if they didn't clean at all. I commend you for taking a deep breath and just dealing with it, instead of letting it ruin your vacation as other's would.

In never traveled with cleaning supplies - but a few years ago I started bringing a tube of Lysol wipes on every trip. It always amazes me that the majority of the TS we stay in don't have a single product for use just to clean up after ourselves.

Curios - have you checked reviews of the resort now that you have been there - any complaints about cleaning. Wonder if it is a fluke with one employee having one bad day.
 

Panina

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Certainly not what anyone would expect at a high end/brand name affiliated resort. What you described is almost as if they didn't clean at all. I commend you for taking a deep breath and just dealing with it, instead of letting it ruin your vacation as other's would.

In never traveled with cleaning supplies - but a few years ago I started bringing a tube of Lysol wipes on every trip. It always amazes me that the majority of the TS we stay in don't have a single product for use just to clean up after ourselves.

Curios - have you checked reviews of the resort now that you have been there - any complaints about cleaning. Wonder if it is a fluke with one employee having one bad day.
I never checked reviews at it was a hgvc affiliate.

I just got a call from housekeeping to offer me a cleaning service and an apology. Did they really think I would stay in the dirty unit waiting for them for two days?

What gets me is housekeeping called me, not management. I had to call management myself this morning. All I got is I’m sorry and they also offered me a mid week cleaning which I told them I don’t need as it’s clean because I cleaned it. What irks me the most is I was told the front desk had their emergency number plus housekeeping was here on Sunday and could have cleaned my unit.
 

Panina

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Is this an HGVC property/unit? We've stayed at 5 different HGVC resorts here in Florida and have never had anything even remotely like your experience! The Plantation House and Plantation Beach Club at the South Seas Resort both on Captiva, Casa Ybel on Sanibel, Charter Club of Marco Island and twice for two weeks each time at Plantation Beach Club at Indian River in Stuart, FL.

The unit didn't get that dirty in just a week's use by other people. Most resorts have a checker who is supposed to look over the units before they are cleared for guests and he or she certainly didn't do their job! Makes me wonder if the previous occupant reported that the unit wasn't very well cleaned and no one made sure that information was passed on the resort manager. When you call if you don't get satisfaction make sure you get the name of the highest person in charge and let it be known that you will be posting on the appropriate Facebook page and Trip Advisor about your experience. That ought to get their attention.
All the places you visited I love. Indian River was a nice surprise that I didn’t expect to love so much.

I believe it was a bad housekeeper because I was here before and it was fine. What upsets me most, not that it was dirty but the response to the situation was non existent. Calls today just got I’m sorry can’t change what happened to you but can make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else. I was offered a cleaning service. Ironic considering I cleaned it already.
 
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Laurie

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Sorry to hear that!

Our place at South Seas this past Dec was absolutely spotless (unlike the timeshare the following week at Ft Myers Beach). So the cleanliness problem isn't resort-wide, but maybe lack of responsiveness is.
 

WinniWoman

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All the places you visited I love. Indian River was a nice surprise that I didn’t expect to love so much.

I believe it was a bad housekeeper because I was here before and it was fine. What upsets me most, not that it was dirty but the response to the situation was non existent. Calls today just got I’m sorry can’t change what happened to you but can make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else. I was offered a cleaning service. Ironic considering I cleaned it already.


They should have given you some certificates for free dinners in the area at some nice restaurants to make up for it at the very least.
 

rapmarks

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I will never forget arriving in englewood, Florida Resort. Only set of four of everything and dishes were covered with wet spaghetti stains, silverware greasy, one cup had an inch of grease in it, dishwasher would not work. Place reeked of smoke, towels had stains, the vent in bathroom was covered with dust and mold. We had no balcony but awoke to sound of people on their balcony, the small window in bedroom opened onto neighboring balcony and we heard everything they said.
We left on Tuesday and went to naples, bought local paper and ended up finding our home, so at least we made lemonade.......
 

Panina

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They should have given you some certificates for free dinners in the area at some nice restaurants to make up for it at the very least.
Management just sucks. I had water pouring out of the shower door and told them. A couple of hours later heard nothing. Tried calling the maintenance department, answering machine, left message, no call back. Tried calling management again, answering machine. Actually got help from housekeeping. The manager there was able to tell me everyone was out on lunch but he got management and they will follow up and call me, no call. Asked that they call me before someone come, they show up at the door.

Funny story. Yesterday I heard banging that I though was a hammer for a long time. . This morning I heard it again for a long time. Finally got up to figure out where it was coming from. The next building adjacent to me, on the overhand, a woodpecker created a hole and I saw him go in. At least his job is finished and no more hammering.
 
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