Ryson Vacation Rentals — Attraction in Galveston

My dad, younger son and I stayed at the Shekinah By the Sea Condominiums for a my yearly Galveston vacation. I went through my travel agent, and was told that everything was taken care of and received my log-in information as well as the confirmation for the reservation about a week before departure.

The day that we embarked on the 6 hour-ish drive from DFW to Galveston, I was texted by Ryson that I still owed a balance for the stay. Not wanting to hinder the process and potentially lose the reservation, I paid this and then later checked my bank statement, aghast that I was double-charged for this stay. I am still waiting for my refund, but am sure that this company will come through.

The condominium is an older building, yet it was clean and there was remodeling happening on site when we arrived. Check-in wasn't until 4pm, but Ryson generously allowed for us to go ahead and go up when we came at about 230pm, as we'd driven such a long distance and the place was already cleaned.

Parking was easily accessible and I paid around 40.00 and was told by my travel agent that they would credit the account (as the advertisement said free parking). I am still waiting for this reimbursement, but am sure they will come through. The concierge at the front desk was very courteous and helpful. They let us use an oversized shopping cart to take up our belongings to the 8th floor via elevator. We stayed in #806.

The entry was key-coded and worked first try.

Sometimes, places close to the sea can have a musty or damp smell, even if they are pretty clean, so we were pleasantly surprised by the clean scent.

The kitchen was in clean and good order with appliances as specified in the description, everything but a baking sheet. The counters appeared to be marble-topped. Refrigerator is a bit small, and dented from previous renters trying to open it too widely, so consider this if buying a lot of groceries that need to be kept cool.

The 'master bedroom' is a very well-situated with two queen-sized beds, each with a pleasing beach-style bedspread/linens. This room also has a dresser and television and all were clean and in good working order, with a closet. Connected to the master bedroom is the bathroom with sink, toilet and shower, all clean and it looked recently updated.

The living area has a leather couch with pillows and two upholstered chairs that also had beach-themed pillows. The coffee table has a beam below that is broken. The end tables on either side of the couch has lamps, one of which is cracked, but still operational. See photos for reference. There is a large tv and entertainment area.

The living room balcony has two rocking chairs and overlooks the beach. It was amazing to sit in the early mornings or evenings and feel the wind and watch the waves.

The guest bedroom (which I stayed in personally) was decorated with a beach theme as well, with a queen-sized bed, a cabinet and tv, wifi router, etc. The closet doors are mirrors and startled me when I woke up and it was still dark. The bed has two very tiny end-tables with lamps and some usb connections. There is another bathroom with sink, toilet and a very high, deep bathtub. This bedroom has an adjoining balcony separate from the living area one, with two rocking chairs as well.

The thermostat was 72 degrees with no options to make cooler or warmer. There was a very loud dehumidifier (which I hadn't seen before) and I thought it might be a portable a/c unit.

We handwashed all dishes, cookware and utensils until the morning we left. Instructions said to load/start dishwasher. The dishwasher did not start, after multiple attempts to get it going. We were in a bit of a rush to get back on the road, so we had to leave as was.

Highlights: Two full bathrooms Across-the-street access to Babe's Beach Two balconies - one from the guest bedroom for privacy

Our stay was very pleasant, and would happily stay here again, or visit one of the other locations by this company, provided they refund me for my double-charged stay and the...

During COVID, it's difficult to find a vacation option that one is comfortable with. My family made the decision that for mental health purposes, we needed to do something. We were thrilled to hear about Ryson's option for a beach front property with cleaning protocols, etc.

We rented out the Beach Palace beach front property. Overall, it was okay. The location and proximity to the beach was terrific! The property itself was not 100% maintained. Fire alarms we not attached in all places. All the door creaked loudly so when someone opened a door (bedroom or bathroom) it woke everyone up. The doors didn't lock in all places or you had to lock only from outside and go in another side, so you had to use the wood sticks to ensure they were closed. There were plumbing issues - toilets and sinks had issues. The AC would randomly go up several degrees (no schedule to set or change). The burners on the stove did not all work. The storage area had a door knocked down.

The company provided minimal towels for shower. We had to do laundry almost every day and bring our own paper towels, toilet paper, etc as there was hardly enough provided. This is a joke when you are paying to be on vactaion.

The property was rented as a four bedroom, but the fourth bedroom had two bunk beds (slept four kids) but it was technically an attic and was musty in there. Upon arrival, the house looked fairly clean, however we found a cigarette butt on the table outside. When pulling pots or pans or glasses out, they weren't all clean and had other food resedue on them.

The most concerning and awkward part of the house was the fact that the house had a security camera next to the tv. The lights would change (almost like a motion detector), but clearly a camera. We turned it around but of course you could imagine the thoughts that this could potentially be elsewhere in the house too invading privacy.

In addition to the topic of privacy, during our stay, the indivuals who were going to be purchasing the home (the rental was on the market) showed up and asked questions and wanted to go through the property with a contractor. I'm sure this was miscommunication between the buyer and seller, however the rental company took hours to get back to us about the situation and asured us the lock box was going to be removed. We were unaware there was even a lock box for others to get in! What if we were not at the house (and on the beach) when they showed up. Regardless, the indivuals sat on the patio to have their discussion about the house and work since they were not allowed to go in (per our saying no).

We were promised internet, no internet an Ryson indivuals didn't get back to us on that either.

Overall, Ryson communication regarding the house, the situation and requirements of the owners to maintain properties to standards that they 'sell for rental' were not as sold. For as much as you pay, they give you minimal items (towels, TP, paper towel rolls, cleaning supplies - not even a sponge!). I was very disappointed with how Ryson handled the situation and response times. Perhaps they just didn't care since the house was to be sold soon, not sure if it would still be a rental??

The lack of response to this review is a great example of how Ryson...

I would never rent from Ryson or use them as a Management Company. We rented Once Upon A Tide from Ryson Vacation Rentals. While the home was lovely, there were issues that were ignored by Ryson. Upon arrival, we noticed there was debris everywhere, including pillows. We also noticed on the balcony to enter the home all the chairs where piled up at one end. Basically it looked like a hurricane hit this house, but not the surrounding homes. When we attempted to enter, we could not get the key to open the door. We called Ryson and they sent a maintenance person out to get it open. Before maintenance left, we each (3 adults over the age of 50) attempted to lock or unlock the door to be sure it was working. None of us could get it locked or unlocked. I told the maintenance guy this wasn't acceptable. He offered no solution and left. We unloaded our bags and groceries that had been sitting out in the heat while waiting for maintenance. We found that there was NO ICEMAKER AS ADVERTISED (they have since removed this feature from the website), not even ice trays. I requested ice trays and was told those would absolutely be delivered. They never came during our stay. We also noticed there was NO OUTDOOR SHOWER as advertised (they have since removed this feature from the listing as well after my call). There were NO GARBAGE BAGS other than the ONE in the can. There were NO CLEANING PRODUCTS. There was only ONE ROLL OF PAPER TOWELS. There was no luandry detergent provided and very little hand soap. And no ziplock, foil, salt and pepper, etc. as you find at most short term rentals. This is fine if you know in advance, but cost us extra money to provide for ourselves. Also during our stay, one night, the Smoke Detector went off. It would not stop so we had to take it down from the ceiling. We discovered the Detector was wet. This was all immediately reported. Maintenance never came out. There were spiders in the upstairs bedsheets. So, I ended up sleeping on top of the covers. We also reported on multiple calls about not being able to secure the home and lock it when we would leave the property. Maintenance was to come out and they never did. So we had to hope no one would go into the home when we would leave and take our belongings. We had no choice but to leave it unsecured as well when we permanently left the home. If I were the owner of this home, I would be very upset about not just the service, or lack thereof, but that my home was often left unsecured and my furnishings at risk of being stolen. It was evident that the home was not checked by a manager before our arrival (as I would think should be protocol after cleanings and before guest arrivals). I want to reiterate the home is lovely. We would actually stay at the property again. However, I would never rent from a Ryson Vacation Home again because they do not address issues, do not return calls, hence they also didn't offer acknowledgement...