A guest account · La Jolla, California
A first-hand account of a three night Vrbo booking at Village Life, 7577 Cabrillo Avenue in La Jolla, hosted by NXT Vacation Rentals, August 28 to 31, 2026.
We arrived on the evening of August 28. The thermostat inside read 84 degrees. Not on the patio in the afternoon sun. Inside, on the wall, at nine at night, where we were supposed to sleep for three nights.
My 80 year old mother was traveling with us. She could not stay in that house, so none of us did. We left that night and paid for a hotel. We did not sleep a single one of the three nights we had booked and paid for.
I did not photograph the thermostat. I was standing in a hot house at nine at night with three kids and my mother, working out where the six of us were going to sleep. What I did do was report it in writing within minutes of walking in, twice, with the number in it. Nobody on the other end ever disputed that number.
What follows is that exchange, in order, as it happened. The door code and the host’s phone number are the only things removed.
Hi Jay.. we just replaced our front door keypad... the old one decided to stop working today.. So your new door code will be: [removed]
Just enter the code and use the door latch to open the door.. .
We hope you have a lovely time in San Diego!
Ok. What time is it ready
The property should be ready by 4 PM. We truly hope you enjoy your stay and have a wonderful time!
We just got to this house and it’s 84 degrees. My 80 year old mother can’t stay here. We have to go somewhere else.
Unfortunately, AC isn’t listed as an amenity at this home, but we should have fans available. Have you had a chance to turn them on?
Please let me know, and I’ll do my best to help.
Yes, found the fans and it’s still 84.
Oh no, I’m sorry it’s still that warm! I’ll check with the management team on what options we have for you.
The house is not inhabitable, it’s 84 degrees. No one can stay there and we had to leave.
“Unfortunately, AC isn’t listed as an amenity at this home, but we should have fans available.”
Take the host at their word. Say air conditioning was never advertised at Sunset Villa. That is their position and this page is not going to pretend otherwise.
It does not help them. A rental that sits at 84 degrees indoors at nine at night in late August is not a place a person can sleep, advertised amenity or not. The host knew the reading. The reply was to ask whether we had tried the fans, and then, once we confirmed the fans made no difference, to check with the management team.
Here is what the weather did that day. San Diego’s official station recorded a high of 84°F on August 28, and at 9:51 PM it was still 77°F outside. This was not a freak event that blindsided anyone. It was the last week of August in Southern California.
Which is what makes the fans answer so hard to accept. A fan moves the air that is already there. At ten at night the air outside was 77 degrees and the air inside was 84. There was nothing in that house capable of producing cool air, and the people telling us to switch the fans on knew what was in the house.
A host who rents a home with no cooling, in San Diego, in the last week of August, has to expect this. Not once in a decade. Every year. The guest should be told before they pay, not after they walk in the door with an 80 year old.
And this was not a cancellation. We did not weigh it up and decide to go elsewhere. We could not occupy the house we had paid for.
The reason this page exists is that nobody told us, so here is what I would do differently.
Ask the host in writing, before you pay, how the home is cooled and what the interior temperature actually reaches on a summer afternoon. Get the answer in the platform’s message thread, not by phone, because the thread is the only record anyone will look at later. Screenshot the amenity list on the day you book, since a listing can be edited afterward and your screenshot cannot.
Understand in advance what “AC isn’t listed as an amenity” is going to mean if you complain. It is the answer you will get. Decide now whether you would accept a house at 84 degrees on that basis, because the moment you are standing in it with your luggage, the leverage is gone.
And when something is wrong, put it in writing within minutes of walking in, with the reading visible in a photograph. The strongest thing in this account is not my description of the heat. It is their reply to it.