Comedians Sherry Cola and D’Arcy Carden spend the night in dozens of distinctive rental homes to determine the most unique place for a getaway on their new HGTV series “Wild Vacation Rentals,” and they’re now coming clean about the most important room quality to check out before checking in.
For each episode of the show, which premieres March 2, Carden, 46, and Cola, 36, visit three vacation rentals and pick one must-stay property based on judging criteria that includes a location’s vibe, value, and memorability.
Yet, speaking to Realtor.com®, the show’s stars, who also appeared together in the Netflix series “Nobody Wants This,” caution there’s one factor that should never be swept under the rug when confirming a reservation: the home’s cleanliness.
“We can’t have Dorito dust in the corners,” says Cola. “I like to feel like I’m the first and only person who’s ever stayed there.”
“I’m always really concerned with how clean it is,” adds Carden. “I’m not even that anal about things like that but when you stay in a rental, you can’t really tell from the pictures so I’m always looking in the corners to make sure that it’s actually clean and fresh and new and washed.”
Being duped by online photos that present a place as pristine, only to arrive and discover it’s a dump is an experience Carden is unfortunately familiar with.
“One time I went to New Orleans with a group of friends,” she explains. “We walked into the place and [there] was, like, an inch of cat hair—it just was unbelievable.
“We were scraping the bottom of the barrel, money-wise, so we had pooled all of our funds together for this place and we didn’t even spend one night there,” she adds. “We went and rented one hotel room and split it.”
Thankfully, the conditions at the various vacation rentals Carden and Cola encounter on their road trip are up to snuff and stacked with an array of fun amenities, such as a racetrack at a car-themed resort in Missouri, a bed for snacking on charcuterie inside a cave dwelling in Arkansas, and lots of other themed abodes across the country that deserve a repeat visit.
“There are plenty of them that we would want to go back to, bring your family, bring your loved one,” states Carden.
“There’s a place right outside of Austin called the Bloomhouse,” she recalls of the rental she’d most like to return to.
“It looks like you’re in a cloud, like a marshmallow palace, and I really would love to go there with my husband. It blew my mind.”
Beyond the Bloomhouse’s beautiful aesthetic, Cola calls its proximity to Austin a major plus.
“It was the masterpiece, and the fact that it was close to a big city like Austin with incredible food,” shares Cola. “It was nice to be kind of accessible if you want to go into the busy streets, but you can also just drive a half an hour and be secluded and sensual.”
Driving from place to place brought the comedians to parts of the United States they hadn’t traveled through before, and they seemed to uncover one particular city that is cornering the market on vacation rentals.
“There’s this place in Oklahoma called Broken Bow and it just is full of vacation homes,” says Carden.
“Most of the states we went to, we would have to travel two, three, four hours in between vacation homes, but in this place, they were literally down the street from each other and there were so many that we didn’t go to,” she continues.
“So there are regions in the country that are specifically vacation home-forward, and that was one that I didn’t know about.”
New discoveries along the way also extended to home design.
Carden is currently making changes to her personal home, which she describes as having a “forest haven, quiet, mellow, log cabin vibe.” She tells Realtor.com the timing of that personal home project was perfect for gleaning design ideas at the locations she filmed at for the show.
“I’m renovating my house right now as we speak and have been for the last year, so doing this with Sherry was, like, ‘Oh, I’m doing my house right now so if there’s anything on our trips that stick out to me, I should incorporate them.’”
While many features at the vacation rentals stand out, Carden points to the various primary bathrooms as providing the most inspiration.
“A lot of great bathrooms with a Jacuzzi tub or an amazing shower—it made me remember how important a gorgeous bathroom can be,” shares Carden.
Cola also came away with an appreciation for well-designed restrooms.
“I discovered that I like smooth stones on my feet in the shower,” she says, before describing her favorite feature in her own home.
“In this living room area, I have a daybed, which people love, and there’s a curtain that you can close if you want to be a whimsical girly, Princess and the Pea, Rapunzel,” shares Cola. “This daybed, when I got the place, I was, like, ‘Oh, this little loungy moment.’
“I wish I could show you, but uh-uh-uh, you gotta pay extra!”
Whether at home or on the road, Cola and Carden love kicking back at special spots—so long as they are spotless.
“Wild Vacation Rentals” debuts March 2 at 10 p.m. on HGTV.
