Shores of Panama — Hotel in Panama City Beach

I was aware of the reviews before booking, but being an optimist, I wanted to see for myself...

ROOMS- This place is luck of the draw when it comes to the quality of room you're given. I've seen some horrific room stories, but we did a one bedroom condo that was pretty good. It could have been a little cleaner but everything worked fine for the most part. A couple lights throughout flickered when first turned on but eventually functioned normally. The bunk beds are fine for children but I wouldn't recommend any adult sleeping as I woke up with back pain. The sleeper sofa is a joke and was not possible to sleep on as the mattress was so thin. It was much better to just sleep on the couch as is. Decor is barebones and the TV in the living room often went out during storms. The biggest issue was we were given a couple rolls of toilet paper and a few towels for a week. That was basically it. I've never been anywhere that didn't give you adequate essentials which we had to go buy at the local Walmart. There is also no maid service which was a first. There was a note in the room that the guests are expected to clean up and wash everything themselves before leaving which is ridiculous. Appliances in the condo itself are fairly modern, but the washing machine did leak at one point, but maintenance came and fixed. AC unit worked well.

STAFF- We didn't really have any issues with anyone in particular but saw others being treated poorly. They run this place like the Gestapo. So many silly rules regarding virtually everything. Staff walks around the pool looking to start conflict with guests. Rude to guests and the vast majority are unfriendly. Most were foreigners from Latin America and the caribbean who aren't always the best at communicating in English.

RULES- This was the most baffling part of our stay. Everything has a set of rules. One day, there was a distant strike of lightening far down the coast which led to staff ushering everyone out of the pool. To make matters worse, they came around telling all guests that they must exit the pool deck. I've never been forced to return to my room due to "weather." A quick Google search showed that the forecast called for a 15% chance of rain and no thunderstorms. Long story short, it never even came close to raining and definitely not a thunderstorm. For about 2 hours, no one was allowed in the pool or on the deck while it remained mostly sunny. Honestly, it seemed like a ploy so the pool staff didn't have to work. The food at the pool grill was just okay and the gentlemen working there seemed as if they couldn't care less. Bar drinks were a bit overpriced and from what I could gather from speaking with other guests, it seemed like the bartender decided the price of a drink on any given day depending on what brand of alcohol they decided to make a drink with.

INFRASTRUCTURE- Only gripe was with the elevators. There is no AC on them and it can get extremely hot and muggy. Wait times were pretty normal and I didn't experience prolonged times outside of the middle of the day when many guests were out and about. There were some times when an elevator or two weren't working. The parking garage is extremely tight and hard to maneuver. The assigned parking spots are numbered randomly with no rhyme or reason making it often difficult to locate your spot.

You don't check in at the lobby as all information is sent to you in advance. The front desk is only occupied from 9-5 and you won't get an answer outside of those hours. The "resort" has great location right on the beach and the biggest draw is the pool size. At some points especially on the weekend, there were a lot of guests but it never got too crowded. It was also fairly easy to find lounge chairs by the pool or shaded umbrellas. But the management and staff run this place like a CLOWN SHOW.

Overall, the experience was not as bad as I was led to believe but they for sure need to learn A LOT about hospitality and...

Just to preface, I do not usually write bad reviews, but vacation life properties have unrightfully taken my money:

I have stayed at Shores of Panama 3 times now, and have had great experiences apart from this last visit in August. Immediately upon arrival, we noticed at least 6 dead roaches laying around the condo. The condo was not fully clean as there was some staining on pillowcases, bedding, etc. More live roaches made an apperance throughout the week including baby roaches in the beds we slept in and in the kitchen. We are not the type of people to cause a fuss on vacation, but at the very least I felt the need to message through our booking app about the roach infestation. Fast forward to checkout, the hotel withheld $150 out of our deposit for "excessive cleaning" because of staining that was there upon our arrival. Not to mention, we've already paid over $200 in cleaning fees when booking. They did not address the roach issue the entire time we were there.

As a well traveled individual that has booked many places, checkout instructions are always followed by me and my crew, and the property is respected the whole time we are there. Apart from leaving small condiments and butter in the refrigerator and loosing small personal items in the couch cushions/under the bed, we left the condo swept, dishes washing, & towels and linens where they were suppose to be. So I do not think the small things left behind warranted $150 extra in cleaning fees, especially when there were stains on cushions and bedding when we got there. I paid for a vacation, not to be my own cleaning service - and with that being said, we did leave the place pretty much as clean as we found it.

To be frank, I feel scammed by Vacation Life Properties. For how expensive the accommodation was, I expected it to be much cleaner and free of pests. This is the first time I've had a problem with Shores of Panama or any rental for that matter. The fact that these people unrightfully did not refund my full deposit after rules were followed and we did not cause any damage to the property... is concerning. Unfortunately, I will not be staying here again and I would not recommend anyone else staying here because of this. The fact that they will not refund me simply for the fact that there is a cockroach infestation in the condo says a lot about this company as well.

For full transparency, I will be adding a picture that shows one of the baby roaches found in the beds. The other attached pictures added are the pictures that were sent to me for "documentation" on why they are taking out a $150 cleaning fee. Please note that the finish detergent in one of the pictures they sent is the detergent that was provided to us by the hotel, so I'm not sure why they added that in the picture of things we left behind? We left fully wrapped, unused butter and sealed condiments in the fridge in hopes the next people could use them- apologies for that, but that does not warrant a cleaning fee. We swept thoroughly but not under the beds (because we are not the cleaning service we ALREADY paid for) and the picture they sent must have been after sweeping the entire condo. We also did not lift up couch cushions (because we are not the cleaning service we ALREADY paid for). They sent pictures of stains that were there prior to our arrival. And I'm not even sure what the picture of the patio is referring to?

In short: We overlooked the roach infestation and uncleanliness to not cause a fuss on our vacation. We left the condo how we found it, apart from a couple personal items missed while leaving. So I do not appreciate this hotel for trying to pull one over on me and not refund the full deposit as promised if no damages were inflicted on the property.

A message to the property: if you're going to unrightfully take money out of people's deposit, at least put it towards pest control so guest don't have to sleep with...

Our family visited Shores Of Panama for our annual family vacation. Normally we would stay at our family beach house but this time we chose a resort instead. What we expected to be an enjoyable vacation for our family turned out to be a complete joke literally! First when we checked in you only had 15mins in a parking area to unload unless your car would get towed! The parking and parking garage is almost a narrow hallway. And if you have a big vehicle, it’s going to be very tight. On top of having our disabled grandmother in a wheelchair, we managed to get everything unloaded without a concierge’s assistance. The only advantage is that we was on the first floor level which we had to walk almost a mile to get to. You had cleaners mopping the entrance of the lower level constantly while people were going back and forth to their rooms, which was a fall risk and no wet floor sign was placed. The elevator line and wait was super long and HOT! There are 23 levels so there was a good chance that you’d be waiting a while but lucky for us that wasn’t the case THANK GOD!! When we arrived to our unit which was 128 that’s when the nightmare began. The overall space of the unit is perfect but for the price we paid, we shouldn’t have came in to old worn out and torn furniture and appliances on top of the roaches. The shower liners/living room curtains where stained and contained mold! The closet door was torn down in one of the bedrooms. We made LYNN who was the assistant manager of the third party who we booked through aware of all of our issues. She even came down to see for herself and took off the cleaning fee. She did everything in her power to make us feel comfortable but at one point me and her had a disagreement over the phone, though we was all frustrated, Lynn became frustrated as well. Lynn even mentioned to us that we can check out and receive a full refund, which wasn’t an option due to we was tired and was just ready to relax. She offered us a different unit but it was going to be to much of a hassle trying to move our grandmother. The television was all out dated except one, and none of the remotes worked. We called maintenance to fix the television in the living room which he did get to work, the light in the shower area of the bathroom, and the closet door that was torn down in one of the bedrooms, instead of fixing it he just took the other down and laid both doors inside of the closet and left. The beds was spring mattresses and was a absolute pain to sleep in. I have a king size back home which is wayy more comfortable and for the price that we paid then we should have been able to sleep comfortably. The fridge didn’t get cold until the next morning and we had tons of food. The unit had tissue in both bathrooms but since we was staying 3 nights we called for more tissue and was advised that once we use the tissue that was provided, then we would have to provide our own tissue going forward. What we did like a lot was the access to the beach right from the resort, and the pool area and poolside bar and grill which was nice! Our third day we wasnt able to get in the pool because someone decided to take a dump in the pool which caused it to be closed until the next day which was check out for us. Other than that the overall experience was straight garbage. The attendees were rude and not friendly AT ALL!! Everybody brushed off every situation or issue like literally as if they was only at work to get paid and go home. False advertisement at its best then your looking at it with Shores Of Panama!! Like literally it was like staying at a upscale Days Inn!! My family will NEVER go back again! I’m not sure about the other units but our was the absolute worse! PLEASE...