Greatly Disappointed!
Upon arrival, our family of 9 unloaded our van to settle in when we realized that there was a colony of bats living overhead in the carport area. We live on 100's of wooded acres & are quite used to critters, but not hanging over our heads defecating on us as we walk in & out the door! (Neither pleasant nor safe!) We wanted to leave, but it was late & had nowhere to go. We stayed up until 2 a.m, booking hotel rooms for the next night & wondering if any bats were in the house with our kids! Then to make matters worse, we woke up in the morning to find the washer was broken & hadn't finished washing my clothes! So we ended up handwashing them & threw them in the dryer. We quickly loaded up because we had reservations at Ruby Falls & left, but not without making sure all of the departure rules were followed first. We let the contact host know we were leaving. He gave one initial response of "Is everything ok?" but didn't respond to my text later on that explained all that had happened & why we were leaving. Disappointing to say the least!! Next morning, I emailed Evolve to let them know of the troubles (which was all still within our booked time slot) & went back & forth with them for 3 weeks. I was initially very patient with them, but eventually grew quite frustrated, as the issues have still yet to be properly addressed & resolved, other than to say they are looking into it (and now they have been silent for over two weeks). We own 2 laboratories & on the rare occasion we can't provide services to our patients (our fault or not), we immediately do what is right for the patient! We don't charge for what we cannot provide! Simple!! I realize they did not invite the bats there or break the washer, but that doesn't change the fact that the bats WERE there and that the washer WAS broken, and it made the last portion of our vacation very stressful for our family. I had hoped to leave an honest review that included a fair response from Evolve, but unfortunately I cannot. We have booked on both Vrbo & AirBnb multiple times and have never had such a terrible experience or treated so poorly by a host. DO NOT book with these people!! **Update: Evolve states in their response to my review that I did not contact them during the stay. This is a complete lie! We were booked from May 15-17. As I stated before, I did text the guest contact at 9:24 a.m. on Sat., May 16 to let him know we were leaving. He gave an initial response of " Is everything ok??" at 9:33. I did not respond back with the details until 3:20 p.m. because we were trying to enjoy our last day of vacation. I never heard back from him again until May 20th when he thanked me for sending the pictures of the bat guano but he made mention of nothing else. The next morning on May 17 (well before the checkout time of 11:00 a.m.!!) I emailed Evolve through Vrbo to let them know what happened. So their statement, "we were not contacted during the stay" is a complete lie! They gave me the run around for the next few weeks using wonderful words about how concerned they were & assured me that they were looking into it. Then they decided that a "fair resolution" was to issue a refund of $295.20. I was charged $1,570.45 for the booking! To offer me $295.20 was an insult. We stayed less than half the time booked and our time there was entirely stressful!! (Not to mention the $347.54 we had to spend on hotel rooms for the second night!) And believe me!! They may not have known before we went, but they full well knew afterwards that there were bats and that the washing machine was broken because no doubt they had to send somebody out there to take care of it all since our stay. So it's very easy for them to say that "the documentation did not confirm the reported issues with bats or the laundry machine." I wish I could post the pictures of the bat guano all over the cement in front of the entry door that I had sent to Evolve for proof but trustpilot doesn't let you post pictures except for product reviews. But believe me, it is all true! I will also say that I submitted a review on Evolve's website that did not include the price info that I posted on this review (because I knew they would never post it), but even so they didn't post my submission. They apparently only "allow" 5 (and some 4) star reviews. But just search TripAdvisor "Experience with Evolve Vacation Rentals?" to see what other people have to say about Evolve with honest reviews (especially read #52, as it is just like my experience!)