A Place at the Beach III — Hotel in Atlantic Beach

This was the worst vacation rental exchange through my RCI membership! It actually angers me that I paid my exchange fees + my accrued travel exchange points(high value due to on beach location) for 2 rooms for our family. One of the rooms was MUCH worse, filthy is a valid adjective. After getting to the rooms, the front office was notified, the gentleman tried to help after coming to the room to see for himself, to get housekeeping to come to clean but f/u we were told they had left for the day and would come the next day at 11am. He himself actually gathered the dirty linens that were piled outside our door. I do not believe the room was cleaned at all prior to our arrival. It also angers me that I had to go to purchase cleaning supplies and clean so we would be more comfortable for the stay. From the dirty tubs and sinks(soap scums film), tables, lights-lamps and ceiling fans that I don't think were EVER dusted/cleaned. The "stocked" kitchen was a joke, i.e. the non-stick frypan was so damaged it was pitiful with stove drawer pots/pans very dirty. There were dirty food items in the drawers; the blender and can opener with dried on food splatters. The dishwasher did not fit into the cabinet, bolted as is not to mention the sink hole under the linoleum galley kitchen floor-trip hazard. Shoes had to be worn at all times due to dirty carpet-seen on socks when walked in stocking feet. Overall making it extremely difficult to relax on our vacation. |Overall the best thing going for it is its location at the beach and that is it from our perspective in the building our rooms were in-I'm assuming the other buildings who are owned must be better as this is a very large property(btw, mostly rude owners). I expected old, beach worn but also did expect CLEAN. This property is old, run down, and in need of many repairs(speaking for our building that housed the 1 bedroom units, L). We spent 1 day at the outdoor pool which was decent but, the staff monitored the pool floats, acted like you were criminal to leave them at poolside-- after the shakedown for checking that everyone was wearing the property wrist bands. They did play bingo that day but was poorly organized/executed with ?prizes. They have a miniature golf area that was under construction, aside from this, the property has nothing else for younger kids to do. The indoor pool was not heated, needed a serious cleaning-had green mold on steps and when I saw a large roach on the grates—I stopped there; it also had a connecting "hot tub" that was not heated—I was told, couldn’t go in because it was packed full of teenagers, 12 people. We were told that there was another outdoor hot tub across the property but we weren’t inclined to see more.|First beach vacation I was ready to leave early! Definitely NOT WORTH what they charge to stay there just because of the beach location--shame on the property management! |I have nothing good to report of the stay 'A Place at the Beach III'. I realize why there were no reviews on RCI site.|Rooms 127 and 208 building L A Place at the Beach III ...

2019 Update: This year we stayed in our inlaws unit #383 which my inlaws own the week but the unit itself is maintained by VRI. For years they have been working on updating the units (which they charge the timeshare owners for by the way) This year the showers and tubs were still disgusting and badly in need of updating, STILL. Not sure how many years you have to say this before they actually clean/fix/ or update them? Mold and mildew could be found in the shower, and on the shower heads which were so bad! Our room had been picked up, but for sure use a deep cleaning. It would have been nice if we had a dustpan for the broom in the closet so we could have swept up the sand we brought in from the beach. And only one plug in each of the outlets by the couch worked, so you had to unplug the lights in order to use a charger. They finally had a newer washer and dryer, but they had a bad smell. The other unit my family was in (#287) looked like it hadn't been cleaned and were shorted towels, and even though the showers had been updated in this unit, in the master bathroom there was black mold and water damage on the ceiling, possibly from a leak in the unit above? Either way, I know they have been working on updates and I'm sure the hurricane last year wreaked its own havoc, but not properly maintaining the units is just disappointing especially because the owners are paying every year for them to be taken care of. Also, I'm hoping that the "indoor" pool gets a full makeover not just a roof because that's in a pretty sad state as well. The location of this property is wonderful and we love the outdoor pool with a slide we keep coming back each year hoping they continue to improve. We liked the tie dye and live poolside music on Friday and the snack bar/icee stand is nice when they sporadically decide to show up and open it (maybe set some actual hours?) The management said they got behind on the bathroom renovations, which I can understand, but renovations aside the nasty showers were due to lack of cleaning not renovations, and even if your not ready to renovate... if the shower heads are that gross replace it with a $5 shower head instead of renting it to people that way! Come on! 2018Like all the updates they've done. The unit we were on finally had new tubs and a working washer and dryer. However after trying to vacuum up after my messy toddler the vacuum didn't work it just pushed things around. Seems pointless ro make these updates without being provided with the tools to keep the place nice. I can only hope next year after being a 30+ year timeshare owner that my in-laws will have updated showers/tubs and a washer and dryer that actually work. And hopefully soon they will address the ventilation and other issues with the indoor pool. On the plus side this year the gentleman that cleaned our unit did a good job, and we still love being on the beach and the rest of the amenities APATB...

I have never experienced such harassment from a facility and its manager, Victor as I did during our visit here. We checked in with a party of six—two adults and four teenagers—and received six wristbands. On the first day, the kids went down to the beach and took off their bands to sunbathe. Unfortunately, one band went missing and couldn’t be found in our room. I decided to buy a replacement after facing harassment about needing a band for the teen who lost theirs. We still had only six people in our room, which was within the allowed limit.||||Later, the teens were caught on a resident's ring camera while they were playing a prank—something they shouldn’t have done, but they’re teenagers and pushed the boundaries. The resident alerted the front office, and Mr. Victor, the supervisor and groundskeeper, intervened. He approached the kids without any parents present, which I was initially okay with. However, when he grabbed one of the teens' wrists to remove the wristband, that crossed the line. Mr. Victor should have spoken to the parents first if he intended to enforce a punishment by taking the band. Instead, he yelled up to our room, saying, “I’ll be up to talk to you,” while we watched from the balcony. He never followed up with us, expecting the kids to relay what happened. I questioned Mr. Victor about whether he had children, as it was unreasonable to think teenagers would come to their parents with this information. Thankfully, our kids did share what occurred. It was a harmless prank, albeit one they shouldn’t have attempted, and taking the band for the day felt like sufficient punishment.||||The next day, while the kids were relaxing in the hot tub, we let one of them borrow a band since he still didn’t have his. Again, Mr. Victor approached them without speaking to the parents first, demanding the wristband and telling them to get out of the hot tub. I promptly went to the office to seek answers. He denied saying he would come talk to us, despite both myself and another parent hearing him. He had no right to take the wristband on the second day, nor to address the kids without adult supervision. A mature conversation with the parents could have resolved the issue, allowing us to agree on limiting the kids’ access to amenities for the remainder of the day. Instead, he chose to belittle these young teens, deriving pleasure from being overbearing.||||I will never recommend this place to anyone and have no intention of returning. It’s shocking that a resort employs someone like Mr. Victor, who treats both guests and staff poorly. We cut our trip short due to this experience, as nobody wants to deal with someone like him. Don’t fall victim...