Kelty Villa Tent - 4-Person, 3-Season

I very rarely write reviews on products but I needed to contribute because this is simply a terrible tent. I have been backbacking and camping for well over 20 years and have owned and set up countless tents for both car camping and backbacking. This is by far the most poorly designed tent that I have ever seen. The rain fly does not fit!! It is very tight in some places but too loose in others. The doors on the fly are extremely difficult to zipper. But worst of all the top of the fly sags in the middle so when it rains you get a puddle on top of your tent. That puddle unevitably ends up inside of your tent. The poles do not seem to fit. They bend horribly just to set the tent up and once there in the tent does to sit flat. I have never seen such a thing in a tent. We have to pile all of our gear in it just to hold the front down. There is probably a great price on this tent through STP but it is definitely not worth it no matter what you pay!

This tent was purchased used in a return. we should have known that the person whom returned it had a bad experience and should have stayed clear. The tent is a bit confusing when initially setting up. the biggest problem was the fly does not fit properly, they pull the tent too tight, and the door zippers fail. Both of our door zippers have failed and there is no way to fully close them at this point. All in all its roomy but has several poor design issues. avoid at all costs!

Our family has found the Villa 4 to be a great middle-path between minimalist and massive family tent offerings. Large enough to sleep our entire family (2A + 2K + mid-size dog) and keep our gear covered. Does a great job keeping the rain out (we've seen plenty). Well ventilated. I also like that the fly/vestibule is entirely self supporting, so you're not dependent on stakes or guy-lines in hard-pack, rock, or sand. Not the easiest tent to set up, but once you figure it out, one person can do it without much effort. Also, this tent is very sturdy - our kids and dog have been HARD on this tent for the past four years (think bouncy-house & scratching at the door), yet no holes or indication of damage anywhere.

great in wind and heavy rain difficult to set up

This tent is a palace for 2 adults and 2 dogs. incorporate the ketly carport off the front and you have some serioous weather protection with tons of room. The shelf in the vestibule is great to be able to keep stuff off the ground out of your way outside the tent.

- good materials, but very disappointing design flaws for a name like Kelty - fatal flaw is there is no windproof zipped inner lining of the 2 large screen doors, so cold breezes just whip low through the tent with no way to block them as night gets colder, or wind picks up - door zipper and fly zipper are opposite each other (very odd), so you have to mostly unzip the screen door then reach across the opposite way to unzip the rainfly to get out...noisy and cumbersome at night...I opted to to crawl out on my stomach than repeatedly double unzip every time. - fly fits poorly (cannot be be pulled taut) so even light breezes cause flapping - has that "socks on a rooster" feeling. - aluminum poles bend VERY easily...likely due to the odd (but cool) arcs they are expected to negotiate. -reverse the door zippers, add solid zipped door liners, recut the rainfly, and add some clips to take stress off the poles... then, this would be a quality car camping tent.

This tent sure doesn't deserve 5 stars but I am surprised by the very low ratings. I would not want to have to hurry and set this tent up in a rain or wind storm but overall not bad. 15 minute set up time tops after you do a couple for practice. OK NOW THE RAINFLY. The rainfly is fine BUT you will have to use all the guy ropes to get it taught and tight. I survived a torrential downpour in this thing with no problems. I purchased this tent ALOT cheaper than listed here so the price/quality ratio gets 4 stars. Otherwise there are better tents for the $$$.

I am currently shopping for a replacement. I was disappointed with this tent from the first use. There are 6 poles and all must be fed into sleeves. I will never again buy a tent where all poles must fit into sleeves as this makes set up and take down extremely difficult. Also the poles are too long. One pole bent sharply the first time the tent was set up. The fly fits poorly, and contacts the side of the tent in multiple locations even after tightening the adjustable webbing. The fly door is right next to the tent door opening so it offers no protection when entering in the rain. The tent does not come with set up instructions, makes initial set up even more confusing. Keep shopping, not worth the money.

The tent is fairly roomy for two adults and a child. The gear area in front is a nice idea, and keeps things pretty dry. Its a challenge to setup the first few times as the foot print is not labeled well. The poles connect to the tent with pins that go through the bottom of the poles, which can be tough to install. The biggest issue is the rain fly does NOT fit well, and makes it nearly impossible to zip the doors closed. It eventually made the zipper on both doors fail.

The tent itself is quite roomy, and has some well thought out organizational additions. However, all of that is offset by how difficult and poorly thought out the setup is. I initially set it up in the back yard, to ensure that I knew what I was doing. It is not entirely intuitive, and once set up I had some serious questions. It seemed as if the tent itself was not big enough for the poles. It was stretched way too tight, and did not sit flat on the ground. The seams seemed to be being pulled far more tightly than I would have liked. Putting in the second set of poles, which is supposed to be done after the first have been put in and secured, was not an easy process. You receive quite a bit of resistance from the sleeves that the poles go through. All in all, not a tent I would want to deal with regularly. It has been returned.