Cheshire Rio Property Management - Aptos, California

Sarah Deveny

Highly recommend NOT renting any properties on Beach Drive if you want to have a fun vacation. It’s not the same on this strip anymore, everyone is extremely uptight. Owners of other properties watch you from their cameras which is extremely uncomfortable. The staff are also not friendly at all.
Response: Unfortunately this situation was blown completely out of proportion. No one was partying on the owners patio when she showed up that morning, and we apologized PROFUSELY for the things we had left on her patio from the night before. We had it cleaned up in 2 minutes and told her we were embarrassed and completely understood her frustration. There was no other issues with her the rest of the week we were there and even invited her to have dinner with us to apologize. As for the other owner, a family member was catching a football a couple steps onto his patio when it was clear no one was home. 25+ years of our family renting these houses on Beach drive and we have never ever had issues.

Brett Harrison

I have rented 208 and 210 Beach in the past through this team. Clean rentals with great locations. They are good to work with and have been very accommodating with check in and answering questions. Gabrielle was awesome with taking extra photos for us. I would recommend them and thier rentals.

Katie Schutz

We had an extremely positive experience with Cheshire renting a two bedroom duplex for six months. Staff were friendly and kind and they took good care of us when we had questions or concerns. No issues with return of our deposit. We did our part by leaving the property in great shape. We are grateful we rented with them.

Julie Van Os

Beware they are disorganized, unprofessional and shady. Terms change depending on to whom you talk. Bill said one thing. Brianna another. Sue is a hot mess! Confused us with other tenants on same street during our week stay and kept our security deposit because of it. Said there were noise complaints against us, yet no cops or property management representative contacted us once during our stay. Neighbor did complain to us that we were too loud plaything corn hole on the deck. We immediately moved it to the beach. Mind you, the owners provide the corn hole on the deck. Sue and the Rio only care about their owners and they will keep your deposit for anything.... just go read other reviews. We weren’t the first this happened to. Np one ever responded to my email or phone calls to discuss this matter. (I have never written a bad review before.... just felt this was necessary). Shady businesses like this should not be allowed to operate.

Pamela Freitas

I highly recommend this agency and particularly Sue Lane. I am a recent fire evacuee from the Santa Cruz Mountains. Sue's name was given to me by a trusted realtor as I was desperately looking for a place for my family and our pets. Other property managers I called told me that I would not find a place and I was ready to give up. When I called Sue she was so responsive and had a cancellation that she could fit our family into. It was absolutely perfect for us and we finally breathed a sigh of relief. In a time of emergency she worked with us on getting everything we needed to her and with all the issues that came up during our evacuation period. Sue was like an angel in a time of need. Sue was always responsive and professional and most of all you could tell that she truly cared and wanted to help. Our beach refuge provided a healing balm for our family and everything we needed was provided. Someday I hope to use Sue again for a real vacation with no fire worries. Thank you so much everyone at Cheshire Rio.

Brian DiGiorgio Zanger

I lived in a long term rental managed by Cheshire Rio and they were basically always very responsive and nice when dealing with problems in the house. The terms of the lease was mostly fair, but had some aspects that were kind of restrictive (ie no subletters) and they didn't raise our rent aggressively over our tenancy. They do have a term in the lease that will basically guarantee that they will charge you for cleaning when you move out (even though they said in our inspection that they wouldn't take anything out if our security deposit), which left a sour taste in our mouths in the way out. Overall, though, we had a good relationship and a positive relationship and I would rent from them again

Jenny L.

From the first phone call to the day of checking in, I experienced nothing but spectacular service. Jane is a delight. What a personal touch. It's great customer service that keeps a business going through thick and thin. We will definitely use Cheshire in the future and avoid paying the extra costs of those travel apps out there.

Jonathan Fong

I had a very disagreeable experience with this company. Check Yelp for more reviews. They have a horrible rating: two stars.
This company tries to make their money off of your security deposits. They make you pay cash up front (as opposed to holding onto a check) so that they can withhold it from you when your rental is complete. Instead, try to pay the security deposit with a credit card so you can dispute.

My experience was they withheld $1000 of my $3000 security deposit. I asked them to itemize the charges. Their itemization was a generalized list of two things: “Over-use” and “Excessive garbage.” I asked them for proof of these claims and they answered with photos of pictures of clean dishes in the drying rack and a counter top that wasn’t wiped down. After the itemization, they also added they needed to pressure wash the patio as well as “other cleaning.” As a renter, your security deposit can only be withheld for damage caused and extraneous cleaning. You are also due receipts for anything they claim. When I asked for these receipts, they could not produce them. I began the process of filing a small claim and without any other discussion, they sent back $500 but still had not returned my call to discuss.

Please be warned of the practices of this company. They are a property management company so they must know the law. But they go so far as to abuse your mis-knowledge by unlawfully taking parts of your security deposit for frivolous claims. Do not use them if at all possible.