First, the unit itself was clean which to me is the very most important thing. The cabinets in the kitchen are showing a lot of age but everything else was nice and comfortable. What unit doesn’t show a little wear somewhere?
Now for this issues. Be advised there is no rideshare service available on the emerald coast area. Even though both Lyft and Uber service the area it is impossible to actually get one due to the driver shortage. Rental cars are scarce as well. There is a service called GoVetted that will pick you up at the airport and return you for your return flight that is absolutely amazing. YOU WILL HAVE TO BOOK THEM several days in advance.
Which leads me to the immediate area around the rental. There is one close restaurant-Whale Tail very good food and service. Surf Hut a mile down the road is good too, but it’s a mile walk and there are no street lights at all. (see above rideshare issues). There is very little public access to the beach meaning if you decide to walk down the beach you won’t be getting back up to the street.
We paid a substantial fee to have our checkout extended by 2 hours. We left to get breakfast and returned to find out door code expired. We went to the office and the staff apologized and said they would send another code. We went back up to the room and waited 15 minutes before going back down to the office a second time. At this point our luggage is inside and our airport ride is on the way. One we got back inside the cleaning crew who also had the new code came right in.
The master bedroom for this unit is on the wall with the exterior doors (not the side facing the beach) and the door for the unit next door is right by the headboard. I’m sure you see where this is going. Any going and coming from neighbors rattled the room. The next to last day of our trip the cleaning crew started very early in the unit next door, before 7:00, and there was absolutely no sleeping in.
The rental staff are helpful via email, but calls go directly to voicemail. You can always go in the office on the first floor but pray the blond with the sweet lab sitting at the reception desk is not there. You will get nothing but mean looks and rude behavior. Truly the worst I have ever experienced. The younger office staff were all kind and polite.
Overall, I would say it wasn’t awful, not fabulous just kind of meh...
