Hill Country Stays — Local services in Horseshoe Bay

The Birds Nest rental in Kingsland

All in all this was a good value for money property. We had 6 people and were comfortable.

I wanted to list out pros and cons. And to be clear. There are more pros than cons. I will start with the cons. It’s a shorter list.

Cons. All the showers need some work. Probably new shower heads and handles. But the showers did work and were fine. boat access is hard. You can technically get a boat down the cove but it’s super shallow and probably requires you know the channel more than we did. not really any fish that far down in the channel if you like to fish. we would have liked to see and few more pantry items. There was salt and pepper but that’s about it. you need to make ice. Fridge is not set up for it. Nor does the fridge have water and my kids said they didn’t like the tap water so we ended up buying a bunch. needs some bbq tools.

Pros

overall clean house. coffee pots. Both reg and pods. :-) washer and dryer sports court was great. Pickle ball and basketball. kayaks. There are three large ones and two small. Kids loved them. really nice outdoor fit pit. But you do need to get wood. plenty of seating by fire pit propane grill works great. wifi is good. Did a couple of work zooms dining room table seats six. Worked for us. large tv in bedroom and living room. plenty of parking. not far to stores and town. HEB is close. nice dock area for sitting and relaxing. outside string lights were nice in the evening. the casita was nice. But be aware it’s not right next to the house. It’s down at the dock at the end of the yard. Not far and worked great for us. host agency hill country rentals were super responsive both prior to visit and during.

Again. All in all I think it was great value and it was clean and worked well for us....

Very clean, nice and well presented home. My wife, son, and daughter-in-law plus two great dogs (all retired) enjoyed getting away from the city. While we didn't use the toys... they certainly would please young families.

Pros Dogs are welcome and the outside is fenced. Our dogs have far less potential for mischief than our kids when they were young. More places should be dog friendly like this one.

Well appointed furniture and comfortable design. Master bed was great.

Outside features like--patio set, fire pit, exterior lighting, gates, and a super gas grill--all were all outstanding.

Cons Few...minor ---but things to know.

No ice maker and very few clothes hangers.

Way too many threat messages and warnings. I understood what drives them... but put all of them into the already large amount of pages required at the initial booking...and let guests enjoy the stay with less auto-texts or emails, or signs. I have lawyers; but maybe we should not pay them by the word. Just my personal opine but vacation time for me is getting away from it.

VRBO, which I have used for a very long time, continues to be a great source of nice properties. However...it has turned into a fee-generating, insurance selling, marketing bot. If there is another fee (like credit card usage) ...like airlines...they will pile it on... without many real services beyond the listing. That is left to the host who has fees too...but actually does a lot.

Just know when you look for your property...that the price featured at the top of the page is vastly different from the cost.

Back to the house.... good....go...you...

Great little cabin in an excellent location, though I was disappointed in the customer service. We booked this cabin specifically because it came with two kayaks, and we intended to be out on the kayaks most of the week. I asked explicitly about the kayaks to make sure they were present and in working order. After my partner flooded his kayak and had to be rescued, we looked up the models and realized they are for children--they cannot hold the weight of an average adult. The hosts were unfortunately not willing to replace them or to provide a small refund (the amount it would cost to rent a kayak for just two days). So, please be aware that adults trying to use these kayaks are in danger.

We also encountered quite a few roaches during our stay, both alive and dead, but that's fairly common in waterside locations. All in all, would not stay with this company again just based on customer service, but the...