Casa Carole, A Quiet Sun-filled Oasis

Casa Carole consists of a main home and an adjacent smaller home, both beautifully decorated. The two homes, as a compound, together share a large patio, garden, swimming pool, and two roof top terraces with views over the charming colonial city of San Miguel de Allende. Except for bedrooms, all the living space is on one level. A short walk to the town center (Jardin). Note: Rent amount includes the local 4% lodging tax. For long term stays (28 nights+), please send inquiry to host. The space Enjoy the privacy and amenities of this spacious, partially adobe home with three roof top terraces and views over the beautiful city of San Miguel de Allende. The great room has 15 foot tall French doors looking out into the garden. Our maids Veronica and Betty will make your stay in our home a real vacation. No beds to make, dishes to do, laundry to bother with. Casa Carole is a comfortable and elegant retreat after a day of touring beautiful San Miguel de Allende. We have many guests who comment that they did not want to go out...they enjoyed our home that much!! Our home has a whole house water purification system, and so you can drink the water from any tap inside the house. Our home is located just a few blocks from the town's central square and across the street from the beautiful San Juan de Dios church and gardens. The area is central and yet quiet. You will not be disturbed by the night clubs in the very center of town, which we understand can be noisy. Our street, Callejon Blanco, has often been called one of the most beautiful streets in all of San Miguel. San Miguel is a very walkable town. Taxis are plentiful and easy to get, and the price is about $5.00 USD to ride anywhere in the city. Your beds will be made each day.....you will be taken care of!! If guests do not speak Spanish well enough to communicate their wishes to the maids, they may contact San Miguel Management Company (SMMCO) to make arrangements. Alternatively, one or more free translation apps have a feature for translating verbal English into verbal Spanish. For your information, the two homes of the "compound" can also be rented separately through Airbnb. If rented separately, each home has its own entrance from different streets and has total privacy from the other home: : A. The main house alone, which has 3 bedrooms, 4 full bathrooms, 4 gas fireplaces, 1 wood-burning fireplace in the outdoor sala, and can sleep 6. Apart from the bedrooms, all the living space is on one level. This separate Airbnb listing is titled "Stunning, sunny oasis with pool." OR B. The smaller adjoining home has 2 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms, 3 gas fireplaces, its own kitchen on the lower level, and can sleep 4. This separate Airbnb listing is titled "Casa Cho Co Latte Warms the Heart." The swimming pool, patio, and garden are available for guests renting either the entire compound (which is the listing you are currently reviewing) or the main house by itself. The pool can be heated at an extra charge of $30 per day, including one day of pre-heating before your arrival. Air conditioning from mini-split units is available at an extra charge in the main house living room, the upstairs master bedroom, and the lower level "white bedroom" as well as in each of the two bedrooms in the adjacent Casa Cho Co Latte. An advance deposit of $150 is required. Contact the Host for details. In the main house, the TV room on the main floor has a full bathroom as well as a sofa bed that can be made up for a guest who has difficulty with stairs. After a guest makes a reservation, a detailed welcoming letter with further information about our home and also about San Miguel de Allende will be sent. Guest access Our home is located just a few blocks from the town's central square and just across the street from the beautiful San Juan de Dios church and gardens. The area is quiet and very central. Free parking on the adjacent streets----but not always easy to find a spot. There are two parking lots reasonably close by. Other things to note LATE ARRIVALS For guest arrivals at our home by 7 pm, there is no late arrival fee. We will pay our housekeeper for such overtime as may be involved. If you feel it appropriate, you may give her a propina (tip) in either pesos or dollars. However, there is a late arrival fee of $60 US for arrivals at our home after 7 pm and before 12 midnight. Please pay this late fee to the housekeeper who greets you. No arrivals after 12 midnight except by special advance arrangements with Host. OUR HOUSEKEEPERS. Our housekeepers Carmen and Betty are like family; they will make your stay very enjoyable. Their normal hours are 9-3 pm Monday through Friday and 9-12 on Saturdays. Their services are included in the rental except as noted below. HOUSEKEEPER AND OTHER SERVICES. Our housekeeepers’ regular hours are 9AM to 3PM (M-F) and 9-12 Saturdays. They do not work on Sundays or official holidays. Their tasks include making the beds, cleaning the bathrooms, cleaning outdoor spaces and furniture, sweeping the patio, watering plants, etc. Ours housekeepers are not personal assistants. Thus, they do not do grocery or other shopping, exchanging dollars for Mexico pesos, or other personal tasks such as taking clothing to a dry cleaner. Currently, the pool maintenance person comes once a week (usually Tuesdays). Other maintenance personnel may need to stop by during your stay if a problem requires it. Other than on Saturdays (when our housekeepers work only 3 hours), they can prepare a simple breakfast served at around 9:30 or 10 AM “family style” (where everyone eats the same meal). After guests have booked a stay, we send them a welcoming letter that includes several breakfast options. Guests need to order or buy the indicated ingredients for the option they choose either in advance or after arrival. Food and beverages can be purchased at nearby grocery stores for either the breakfast options mentioned above or other food needs. If guests want a full meal shortly after arrival, there are two very nice nearby restaurants: Bocaciega (closed Tuesdays) and Mi Bistro 300 (closed Mondays). They are both a short walk up Callejon Blanco from the main entry to our home. Walk out the front door, turn right, and walk uphill to where Callejon Blanco dead ends in Calle Quebrada. Directly across Quebrada street is Bocaciega. Diagonally to the right across the street is the driveway entrance to Mi Bistro 300. For any housekeeper services outside their regular hours (e.g., preparation of a dinner or appetizers for a cocktail party) ---assuming the maids are available--- guests will need to pay them at their overtime rate of 200 pesos per person per hour. Alternatively, guests can contact a catering service or an outside cook to come to our home to prepare a meal or meals. Catering information is contained in the welcoming letter we send to all guests after they have booked a reservation. All shopping and preparation for these other meals would need to be done by these third parties and not by our staff. While our housekeepers do not do personal laundry or ironing, guests may use the clothes washer and dryer in the garage area of the main house or on the ground floor of Casa Cho Co Latte. If guests have questions about the washer or dryer, the housekeepers can demonstrate how to use them. Some of the bedrooms have ironing boards and irons. Bed linens are changed once a week. If for any reason (other than pre-existing rips or tears in the fabric) guests wish them changed more often, there is an extra bed linen service charge of $25 for each such change. Laundry and dry-cleaning services can be found within central San Miguel. The one we use is nearby on Quebrada street. AIR CONDITIONING AND HEATING. In addition to gas fireplaces in the living room, the primary bedroom, and the lower level bedroom, Casa Carole has AC/heating mini-split units in the living room, the primary bedroom, and the lower level bedroom. There is an extra charge to use the mini-splits---an advance deposit of $150 is required. Contact the Host in advance for details. LIMITATION ON PARTIES AND OTHER EVENTS. No parties or other events with more than six (6) invitees (i.e., outside the guest group) are permitted without Owner’s advance consent. A fee and special arrangements may apply. CHILDREN AGES 12 AND UNDER MUST TAKE THEIR MEALS AND SNACKS AT A TABLE AND NOT ON ANY OF THE FURNITURE. Also children should not do art projects involving paints, colored pencils, or other media that may stain the furniture or furnishings, inside or out. TIPPING THE HOUSEKEEPERS. At the end of your visit, you may wish to tip Carmen and Betty. They very much appreciate such recognition of their efforts to please you. Tipping household employees is customary in Mexico. Of course, the amount of the tip would depend on the service provided, your relative satisfaction with those services, the length of your stay, the number of guests in your party, and any special needs you might have had. We are frequently asked how much to tip. We suggest a collective tip to cover BOTH housekeepers together of 5% of the gross rent (e.g., if your total rent is $3000 USD, then 5% would be $150 USD paid in pesos at the currrent exchange rate). Another option would be a tip for EACH housekeeper based on the number of days in your stay---in such case, we suggest a minimum tip of 150 pesos per day per housekeeper. Please keep in mind that we do not have a cleaning fee, and so tips to the housekeepers in part go to compensate them for this service. TRAVEL AND MEDICAL INSURANCE. You should consider purchasing travel insurance to cover trip cancellations or interruptions as well as medical mishaps. You may wish to check with your own medical insurance to see if it covers incidents occurring outside your home country. Medical evacuation programs are also available. ADDITIONAL GUESTS UP TO TEN TOTAL. Casa Carole has a normal guest limit of 8 persons. If you wish to add to this number, you can do so through the Airbnb listing, and the increased rental will be automatically calculated. But we can accommodate only an additional 2 persons, for a total of 10 guests. UNPERMITTED additional guests above this total of 10 will be charged to Guest at $250/night per unpermitted guest. Please remember that children age 2 or older count as "guests." Rental of our home does not include its use as a venue for special events such as weddings, birthday parties, or receptions NOR any other type of parties without our advance permission and payment of an event fee. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, CONTACT US. Unpermitted events or parties will be subject to a $500 charge. KEYS. Each guest couple will receive a set of keys (usually 3 different keys) to use during your stay. For the main house, two of those keys are "high security" type and difficult to copy. Because of the time and expense in replacing keys not returned at the end of your stay, the charge is $250 USD for each high security key not returned and $50 for each other key not returned. BEDS. There are two king beds (main house and Casa Cho Co Latte master bedrooms) and two queen beds (the lower level bedrooms in the main house and in Casa Cho Co Latte), and two twin beds in the mezzanine bedroom in the main house. SOUND TRAVELS. There are many hard surfaces that cause sound to "bounce" and "travel" more than many guests are used to. The home itself is of masonry construction; and then there are the brick patio and the garden walls. As a result, guests need to be mindful of how much their conversations and music may impact our neighbors. Please be considerate of our neighbors. We ask that prospective guests complete their Airbnb "profile" before booking a reservation. If you need fewer bedrooms, see our separate listings of the main house ( "Stunning Sunny Oasis with Pool") and of the adjacent smaller home ("Casa Cho Co Latte "). CHECKOUT TIME IS 11 AM. If this checkout time for some reason creates an inconvenience for Guest, please must confer with Host to see IF a later checkout time is possible. IT MAY NOT BE POSSIBLE. DAMAGES. If, unfortunately, damages occur to our home or any of its contents that are beyond ordinary wear and tear, Guest will be expected to pay for the repair or replacement of the damaged items. Payment can be made through the Airbnb Resolution Center.