This review is broken down into three parts: 1) Booking 2) Accommodations 3) Property/Beach
Booking: My wife and I have booked multiple stays through VRBO and this was by far the most laborious. Once we settled on this property and paid the deposit, we immediately received an email from the owner needing an additional payment to cover a local tax of some sort. This was annoying because it should have been included in the total price-not as a separate “fee.” The owner and VRBO need to sort this out. Once paid, it was then determined that an additional fee would be required by the property at check-in as a “guest fee.” Huh? Again, something that needs to be added into the total price of the booking. Lastly, the owner required a security deposit for the property which had to be mailed as a separate check to the owners home. (She doesn’t cash unless there is damage) This was five payment steps to rent a small condo for three nights. This doesn’t include an additional step of signing and mailing back a contract. By the end, I felt as if I needed to be compensated for the book keeping I did to rent this property.
Accommodations: Pros-The property was nice. It was bright and airy with plenty of sunlight and decent furnishings. It has a decent partial view of the beach. Cons-You have to bring every linen including kitchen towels and bath mats. The kitchen seems to be an accumulation of random utensils, old pots and pans, and a coffee pot that makes “warm” coffee.
The unit had several small notes taped to many places which had things like-“Dont put tampons down the toilet, “Don’t put sand down the garbage disposal”, Turn the A/C up to 80 when leaving” etc. Eventually I gave up reading these things because it felt more like I was housesitting then renting a place. The shower heads seemed low-flow and felt like dozens of thin, sharp streams of water that poked your skin. Lastly, the internet connection was poor. It worked about half the time and we had to reset the modem twice in three days. Previous reviews had eluded to this problem.
3) Property/Beach- Although we were up above 110th Street in Ocean City, it is still very crowded and noisy. The beach was packed four rows deep from the surf. It was very difficult to even get to the surf as almost each square foot is taken over by towels and umbrellas. Also, the property has only three elevators but policy states only one family per elevator.