Panama City Beach Vacation Rentals by Vacasa — Hotel in Panama City Beach

This review is for Gulf Highlands: 135 Grande Island Blvd posted in November, 2021 managed by Vacasa.

My complaint is aimed at Vacasa who manages this property.

We stayed here for 2 full weeks over the Thanksgiving Holiday. The good, the bad and the ugly:

The good: This townhouse has an excellent gated community location just a 5 minute walk to the beach. There is also a pool and a bathroom at the beach exclusively for the Gulf Highlands community. Within the complex, there are multiple pools, including heated pools, within walking distance of the unit. On-site shuffleboard and mini golf too. The main pool is only 10 steps from the patio of this unit. You have 2 reserved parking spaces right in front of your unit. The people in this complex are very nice. The unit itself is spacious with 3 bedrooms and 3 ½ baths all good size. The living room/dining area and kitchen are all good in terms of size. It’s well equipped and all bedrooms and living room have smart-TV’s and the beds are comfortable. Plenty of closet space and dresser drawers. Well working washer and dryer. An outdoor gas grill is right on your patio.

The bad: There were several items that were not functioning when we arrived including cracked drawers in the refrigerator, no hot water in master bath shower, a broken fan in master bath, 2 broken light fixtures in the master bath and 1 broken light fixture in a guest bath. The property manager, had not detected these problems prior to our stay and was slow to make the repairs once they were notified. It took them 3 days to get the hot water repaired and 5 days to get the fan and light fixtures repaired. They were very quick to reply to phone calls and emails but it just took too long to make the repairs. Basically, a lot of talk and very slow action. They even tried to tell me that they would be unable to fix the lights and fan and said they were going to refund my credit card with $150 and I said I didn’t want a refund – I wanted the place to be repaired and in good working order. It was not until I insisted that they fix everything that they finally sent somebody to take care of it.

The ugly: SEE PICTURES. The kitchen table was disgustingly filthy with dirt, grime and a human fingernail stuck under the glass top (Vacasa sent someone to clean it but the wood frame is still sticky). The carpets were stained beyond imagination (Vacasa sent someone to clean the carpets but the stains are still there) and the kitchen barstool cushions, dining room chair cushions and living room couch are all grossly stained. They said there was nothing they could do about that and that it was on the owner to make those replacements. I had read a review from last summer where somebody complained about the filth and stains of the kitchen/dining/living room furniture and Vacasa replied to the reviewer saying that they were working with the owner to replace all of that furniture. Well 4 months later and nothing was replaced. Vacasa blamed it on the owner. My question is, then why don’t you as a property manager, dump this owner and their property? Why do you continue to put this property out there under the Vacasa name knowing how disgusting the carpets and furniture are? As a result of this experience I will not rent a property managed by Vacasa ever again and would certainly not recommend that anybody rents this place until all carpets are ripped out and replaced and first floor furniture is replaced. We actually went out and spent $75 on a couch cover and tablecloth for the kitchen – we couldn’t sit on that couch! I hope this review helps prospective renters and motivates the owner of this unit to do the right thing and replace the gross obsolete...

We booked this house for the number of bed/bath and location, hoping for a great family trip from Friday to Monday for memorial weekend. Unfortunately, the stay was not up to par AT ALL. The worst thing about the stay was the plumbing situation… we were not able to use the lower bathroom the whole stay. The first night/early morning (Friday/Saturday), a nice neighbor came over (around 12am) to let us know that the sump pump(?) alarm was going off and what we should do - call vacasa and tell them the alarm was going off and have someone come out in the AM and that we should limit water use. She mentioned that she had to let the last renters know the alarm was going off too but she didn’t think they did anything or called vacasa about it since it was now going off again. The next morning (Saturday) we used the downstairs bathroom (to just urinate, btw) and it clogged/the water came up. We also noticed the bathtub was dirty and looked like someone had puked in it, but none of us did. Eventually, we began getting changed to go to the beach but noticed a smell coming from the downstairs bathroom. We looked inside and the tub had filled up with sewage water and filled with feces. This loop of the tub filling up and toilet over flowing with sewage water continued for the rest of the 3 day stay. Please keep in mind we did not use the downstairs bathroom at all and the toilet was still getting clogged and over flowing. On top of the plumbing situation, the couch and pillows smelled like cat/dog pee (we wanted to let vacasa know ahead of time about the smell so we wouldn’t get blamed for it since we did bring our furry friend). The floor was dirty and left our feet black. We originally honored the “no shoes inside the house” policy but multiple of us kept stepping on the spiky sand spurs inside the house and even broke skin and bled… we were under the impression the house has been cleaned and vacuumed before we came. They were in/on the rugs and on the wood flooring. The walls in the bathroom were dirty and stained as well. And the overall communication with Vacasa (the management company) was horrible.

We attempted to contact vacasa multiple times with the urgent plumbing issue but we received multiple messages that seemed like they were automatic or generic (from multiple different vacasa “employees”). Eventually someone came out on Saturday around 1pm and “fixed” the issue but when we got back from the beach around 3pm, the alarm was going off again and sewage water was running from the side drainage area and in the downstairs bathroom. We continued to contact vacasa and received the same generic messages. Another person came out the next day (Sunday) and unclogged the toilet and said they “fixed” the issue. But it was not, and we contacted vacasa again. We did not even attempt to use the downstairs bathroom at all during the stay. Not only has the communication with vacasa been horrible, but the issue with the pluming is a BIOHAZARD to our health! It’s extremely unsanitary and unhygienic! One of our family members has an autoimmune disease and could have gotten really sick if it weren’t for them being put in the main bedroom with their own bathroom! Thank goodness they did not use the downstairs bathroom. The issues remain and no one else came to fix the plumbing situation before we left...

BEWARE of Vacasa! As someone who works in commercial property management, I know exactly what good customer service looks like, especially when there are issues. Let me tell you, this was the worst customer service I've ever encountered, with absolutely ZERO resolutions throughout our entire stay. Every time we reached out about an issue, we received the same canned response: "Our team was advised and will reach out to you as soon as possible." Our stay was for 5 days and 4 nights, and here’s a breakdown of the nightmare we experienced:

Early Check-In Denied: We arrived around 3 PM after traveling all day with our dog. Despite the listing stating that early check-in might be an option if available, we were flatly denied access, even though the house was clean and empty. To add insult to injury, the code to enter didn’t even work until after 4 PM, leaving us and our dog stranded outside.

Unkempt Yard: The grass hadn't been mowed in ages, with weeds towering above our knees. We contacted them on the day of check-in to get the grass mowed, especially since we had a dog with us. Despite daily follow-ups, the grass was never cut during our stay.

Dirty Towels and Questionable Cleanliness: The cleaning crew left dirty towels hanging in the bathroom. When we pulled out a "clean" towel, it had hair stuck to it. This made us question the cleanliness of all the towels and bedding. We reported this immediately but received no resolution.

Pest Infestation: The back deck was infested with roaches and sand fleas, and inside we had to kill numerous roaches and spiders. Clearly, the property had not been properly exterminated. We did get a text the evening before checkout asking if we wanted them to come and spray. By that time, we were packing up and told them to wait until we vacated in the morning. Lack of Basic Supplies: For a house that cost so much, the lack of basic supplies was appalling. We had to purchase hand soap, salt and pepper, paper towels, and there was only one spare roll of toilet paper. When you spend that much money on a rental, it’s baffling that these essentials are not provided.

In summary, the property management's lack of responsiveness and failure to address any of our concerns made our stay incredibly frustrating and uncomfortable. Save yourself the headache and avoid this place at all costs. I have already reached out to the BBB, posted reviews on Airbnb and Yelp. NOT at all happy about the lack of professionalism on their part...and appears Im not the only one with a...