Sea Oats Motel — Hotel in Destin

What a terrible hotel experience! We checked in on a Wednesday into a regular room and it was not the cleanest place to begin with. The room was very out dated, especially the bathroom! The ac unit worked but not very well at all! It is just a walk off of the back deck to the walkway to the beach which was great bc we have a baby and many of the baby's beach gear to carry so we decided to stay there. On Thursday morning we woke up and my husband and I decided to stay in destin another night and instead of moving all of things to a different hotel on a short stay, we decided just to stay there another night. Around 4 o'clock we returned from the beach and my husband went to the restroom (number one) and flushed the toilet and it overflowed. It was so bad that it went into the kitchen. We went to the front desk and told them and they told us that they would put us in a room directly beside that room so go ahead and start gathering our things. In that process, we learned that the pipes are the same pipes to the other room and that we cannot move into that room. They moved us to the other side of the pool into a much newer updated room!!!! I politely went to the front office and spoke with front desk attendant to see if there could be any type of compensation for the complete inconvenience of this. We ended up missing dinner with friends because this entire process took well over 2 hours. Also we had move our own luggage through the sewage water that was all over the room!!!! She told me that there is nothing that she can do but move us to another room and I could speak to a manager in the morning but she assured me that the manager will not be able to compensate us in any way because she has no authority to do so either. The only person who has that authority is the owner and he is never there???? Great way to run a business! My first concern is WHY were we in the terrible room to begin with????this was off season and hardly anybody was staying there???? Why wouldn't they give us a better room than the outdated, clogged up sewage system, on the verge of falling in, pos room! We should have started off in the better room to begin with! Secondly, how can you expect anybody to be okay with this and not be compensated in some form???? I will not ever stay at this place again and I advise anybody who enjoys a clean place and friendly service not to stay here because what you will get is an old, dirty, out dated room that the plumbing may or may not fail you along with the rudest employees who will do nothing if you encounter any problems what so ever, which I'm sure will be the case at this...

My family has been coming to Destin for over 30 years for vacation and has always stayed with Sea Oats or at one of their properties. Took a brief trip this month and I can say we will NEVER be staying here again! We had a room at Crystal Sands and it was filthy when we got there, stains all over the couch (looked like chocolate smeared), dried soda rings on table, food crumbs and food left in fridge from previous guest, sand STILL in the bed from the night before, hair in all the drains, no toilet paper, and kitchen lights not working. After complaining the cleaning service showed up to inspect the room and promptly told us to "get out of her way" as she slung her supplies around and gave us dirty looks. We were exhausted from the trip and requested to be moved so we could settle in while she cleaned so they decided to move us to the only other vacant spot they had at the Cabana Club. Once we checked in we began noticing some of the same issues as the previous location. There were cut toenails on the couch in plain sight, boogers smeared on the kitchen wall, dust caked on outlets, hair in all the beds, dried soda rings on the bedside table in one room, and TV not working. We called and talked with the owner and let him know we weren't asking to be moved or refunded that we just wanted him to see how dirty everything was. He responded by saying we were upgraded and should enjoy having more space and not to worry about it. We asked him to come look at the filth and he declined and said we could just go ahead and leave if we were unsatisfied....after driving 15 hours and there not being another place available (we checked!) on the beach because it was a busy weekend we could either drive home with our children or stay in a dirty room. He said he would have the cleaning service come by the following day, which they never did, and we never received a call back from him either. When we checked out the front desk was extremely rude and the man we spoke with who claimed to be the owner slammed the door on us as we walked out. I would advise bringing your own cleaning supplies and washing your sheets before you sleep in them if you stay here!!!! Gross rooms and bad...

Let me start by saying that we have been going to Destin for vacation for 40 years long before it was the premier destination and have been going to the Sea Oats Motel of and on during that time, even when it was not the choice place to stay. We did so because of the location and the friendly owners. I recently made 2 reservations; one for my daughter and her family and 1 for myself and my husband to visit my 85 year old father who lives up the road from the Motel. We had a family emergency that's quite serious, involving a near suicide and my son-in-law was suddenly deployed for the Navy. I sent an email to the motel requesting that the reservations were canceled and received confirmation that they had been but in the future to call. I thanked them and then realized later that only one reservation had been canceled so I sent a follow up email and was told again to call the office and so I called the office. The woman that I spoke to was INCREDIBLY RUDE. I mean INCREDIBLY RUDE! She she notified me that the way I had set up the reservations was confusing because I used the same email address but 2 different names and that the email address was the most important because when I booked the 2nd reservation it changed the name on my daughter's reservation who has a different last name because she's married, to my name. However she still only canceled the 1st reservation so that didn't make any sense. IF THE RESERVATIONS ARE LINKED THROUGH THE EMAIL ADDRESS , AND AS A RESULT THE NAME WOULD DEFAULT TO THE SAME WHY WOULD THE SECOND RESERVATION HAVE BEEN MISSED? I thanked, her but again incredibly rude about the situation. It's just a shame that people don't stop and think that there could be very serious scenarios that arise that are out of control of the customer and choose to be so flipping rude. Rest assured the tens of thousands of dollars that me and my family and those to whom I have recommended to stay there over the years are regrettable. We will no longer be saying there and this experiencehas tainted the good memories that we have. We will pay the higher price to stay other places and I will no longer recommend the Sea Oats...