EXCLUSIVE: ‘Wild Vacation’ Stars Reveal Big Red Flags to Look Out for When Booking a Vacation
Comedians Sherry Cola again D’Arcy Carden spent the night in dozens of unique vacation rentals to determine the most unique getaway for their new HGTV series “Wild Vacation Rentals,” and now they’re completely candid about the most important room quality to check before check-in.
In each episode of the show, which premieres March 2, Carden, 46, and Cola, 36, visit three rental properties and choose one place to stay based on judging criteria that includes the location’s vibe, value, and memorability.
However, speaking to Realtor.com®, the stars of the show, who also appear together on the Netflix series “Nobody Wants This,” warned that there is one thing that should not be swept under the rug when confirming a reservation: the cleanliness of the home.
“We won’t have Dorito dust in the corners,” said Cola. “I like to feel like I’m the first and only person to ever live there.”
“I’m always really concerned about how clean it is,” added Carden. “I’m not big on things like that but when you live in a rented place, you can’t really see in the pictures so I’m always looking around the corner to make sure it’s really clean and fresh and new and washed.”
Being fooled by pictures online that present the place as clean, only to arrive and find it’s a dump is something Carden is unfortunately not used to.
He explains: “One time I went to New Orleans with a group of friends. “We went to the area again [there] it was like, cat hair—it was unbelievable.
“We were scraping the bottom of the barrel, we were spending money, so we had collected all our money to prepare this place and we didn’t even spend one night there,” he adds. “We went and rented one hotel and divided it.”
Thankfully, the settings at the various vacation spots Carden and Cola take on their road trip are full of snuff and packed with an array of interesting amenities, such as a racetrack at a car-themed resort in Missouri, a junk food bed inside a cave dwelling in Arkansas, and many other themed locations across the country that deserve repeated visits across the country.
“There are a lot of them that we would want to come back to, bring your family, bring your loved one,” said Carden.
“There’s a place outside of Austin called Bloomhouse,” he recalls of a rental he’d love to return to.
“It looks like it’s in the cloud, like a marshmallow palace, and I would really like to go there with my husband.
Beyond Bloomhouse’s aesthetic appeal, Cola cites its proximity to Austin as a major plus.
“It was a masterpiece, and the fact that it was so close to a big city like Austin with amazing food,” shares Cola. “It was nice to be easily accessible if you want to get on the busy roads, but you can also drive half an hour by yourself and eat the passion.”
The drive from place to place brought the comedians to parts of the United States they had never been to before, and they seemed to discover a town that shut down the vacation rental market.
“There’s this place in Oklahoma called Broken Bow and it’s full of vacation homes,” Carden said.
“Most of the states we went to, we would have to travel two, three, four hours between the guest houses, but in this place, they were down the road from each other and there were too many that we didn’t go to,” he continued.
“So there are regions in the country that look forward to the holiday, and that’s one I didn’t know about.”
New discoveries along the way were also extended to home design.
Carden is currently making changes to his home, which he describes as “a hideaway in the woods, quiet, cool, with the sound of a log cabin.” He tells Realtor.com that the timing of that personal home project was perfect for gathering design ideas from the locations where he shot the show.
“I’m renovating my house right now as we speak and have been doing it for the last year, so doing this with Sherry was like, ‘Oh, I’m renovating my house right now so if there’s something on our tour that touches me, I have to cover it.'”
While many of the features in the rentals stand out, Carden points to the various basic bathrooms as providing the biggest inspiration.
“So many beautiful bathrooms with a Jacuzzi tub or an amazing shower—it made me remember how important a beautiful bathroom can be,” says Carden.
Cola also came to appreciate the well-designed toilets.
“I discovered that I like smooth stones on my feet in the shower,” she said, before describing her favorite feature of her home.
“In this part of the living room, I have a day bed, people love it, and there is a curtain that you can close if you want to be a funny girl, Princess and the Pea, Rapunzel,” said Cola. “On this day, when I found the place, I was like, ‘Oh, this is a long moment.’
“I wish I could show you, but uh-uh-uh, you have to pay more!”
Whether at home or on the road, Cola and Carden love to retreat to special places—as long as they’re spotless.
“Wild Vacation Rentals” premieres March 2 at 10 p.m. on HGTV.
