Island House Beach Resort — Hotel in Siesta Key

My family has been going to IH for years. We were skeptical this year due to Covid19, but decided to rented five condos facing the ocean at $2,243 each (not part of the 30 people group in other posts). ||Once settled in, we headed down to enjoy the beautiful, clean beach we all hope for after working hard to make a vacation happen. However, it was smelly and dirty from all of the seaweed brought in by the storm the week before. While speaking to other guests, the disappointment was mutual. I spoke with an employee who told me that IH and the city were going back and forth about whose responsibility it was to clear the seaweed, but could not come to an agreement, yet I noticed that other buildings near by and the public beach had been cleared. It appears $2,243 weekly rental is not enough for IH owners to have a clean beach for their guests. ||I made up my mind that I was going to make the best of it, but the two times I tried to enter the beach, I almost fell from the slippery seaweed. I then decided to enjoy the sun by lying on the beach chairs provided by IH. Wednesday morning while laying peacefully on the chairs an employee informed us that we could not have the chairs past a certain point, obviously I had missed the sign and no one said anything to me the 4 days prior. I became irritated and frustrated, as that was the only thing I had to look forward to. I explained I had been there the past 4 days and that their concern instead should be cleaning up the beach to make it better for their guests and not worrying so much about their chairs. His response was "I am calling the manager". Although I had never met Scott, his reputation was not the best. He is rude and has poor management skills and I was about to find out. This man has NO management skills!!! The second he approached me, I knew the situation would not be a pleasant one. In a very rude tone, he told me I needed to get up, to which I replied, “I am not moving”. Had he approached me differently, I would probably had complied, but you will receive from me the same respect you give and this man had non. I was angry at the fact that my family was paying over $11,000.00 for a week and couldn't enjoy a nice clean beach or a beach chair where I wanted. Do not approach me with an attitude over a chair when your main focus should be having a nice place for your guests. ||When asked about the seaweed, he told me that the city chose not to clean it and that it is not IH's responsibility. However, when I told him his employee informed me that it was not clean because they are having a war over who is responsible; his answer to me was “that is fake news”. He proceeded to tell me that the reason for not clearing it was because of the turtle eggs, but that sir IS “fake news” because the condo next to us had a tractor out there clearing theirs as did the public beach. Does that mean they are killing the eggs? ||The next thing that came out of Scott’s mouth was that if I didn’t like it, he would give me a refund and leave to go some place else. Awesome customer service Scott! By the end of it all, he told me that if I did not get up from that chair, he would have me evicted.||Glad I am not an owner of a condo at IH because I would be appalled at the way he manages this place. ||I was over it and gave Scott the chair. The next day, other people had chairs past the notice sign and no one said anything about it. I guess the rule only applies to some!||I think Scott needs to focus more on the important things, such as keeping people from playing volleyball at 4:00 am and yelling in front of condos where people are sleeping. ||Friday morning, seems Scott had enough complaints and finally decided to get someone to clean up some of the seaweed. Too bad we did not get to enjoy that!||Please do not allow Scott to make you think that these guests who are complaining are to blame. If you are considering staying at this place, think again. As long as Scott is in charge, I will...

Island House on Siesta Key has been one of our favourite places for over 20 years. We’ve gone from renting for two months at a time to just a couple of nights, and everything in between. The way the property is situated, the landscaping, the view, the beach is out of this world. But consistently been finding that over the years. Some of the villas I have not been maintained or updated and I really disappointing. That was our experience with Villa 13.||Villa 13 definitely needs an overhaul. | |When we arrived, we noticed that the carpet in one of the bedrooms was very damp/wt. The dampness spread along in front of the entire dresser in-between it and the bed and into the corner. At first, we thought perhaps the carpet had been cleaned before we arrived, but over the four days it did not dry. In fact, on our last night my daughter’s novel fell onto the floor and by the morning it was very wet with brown stained water. We ended up putting towels down on the floor so we didn’t need to walk on it. The room also had an odor to it.| |The toilet seat in the washroom (not ensuite). seems to have suffered some damage over the years and is stained from… well you can probably imagine. We weren’t comfortable using that toilet because it was kind of gross. It looks like someone has tried to scrub it causing scratches in the front, but then other matter is now stained into the scratches. | |Upon arrival, the en suite bathroom had a dirty towel on the floor behind the door. Again, making us question how well the place is actually cleaned.||The living room furniture is not only dated, but it is kind of dirty. Overall, I was surprised how dusty and grimy it was and that there were still items left from other guests in the bedroom drawers such as snacks and medication, which means they aren’t checked between guests. ||Although I was very disappointed with her accommodation, our time at island house was still a good one given a little time we spend in the villa, hence the 3 star rating. ||Now you might wonder why we didn’t bring these issues to the attention of the staff. We did speak with one maintenance staff member at the time who told us we needed to go through the Manager Scott. After 20 years of staying at that place, we know that Scott is miserable to deal with and often is of no help. I write this review having just learned that Scott is no longer at the property which is pleasant news. I hope the new management team has a more customer service focused goals and are able to bring Island House back to the incredible property it once was.||Thank you for all...

Great updated apartment/condo overlooking the beach, very well maintained and very clean, plenty of towels, well-appointed kitchen. Wonderful location to 'shelter in place' for a week during the Covid-19 madness. (Given that, yes, we did bring our own wipes and wiped down surfaces, handles and switches, despite how clean everything was. We plan to do the same when we leave to help protect the cleaning staff, although we have been healthy, thankfully, and quarantined for 3 months at home when the lockdowns began.) Made daily trips to Anna's Deli for their awesome sandwiches, otherwise we cooked ourselves and ate in. My wife grew up coming to SK every summer in the '80s and into the '90s and stayed at the Island House many times and a few at a friend's place at Gulf&Bay. We even honeymooned at SSRC. We have since vacationed with her family at other locations (SSRC, Jamaica Royale, Casa Mar) on and off over the past 22+ years, all of which were nice, but this one has been the best by far. We will have to let her family know we all need to start coming back here! Reservations, check-in, communication - all were very easy and handled well; management here does a superb job. Even when we inquired via email about loud music at a neighboring resort going on until 2 a.m. one night, they said they'd take care of it. (No problems again after that. Thank you Scott!) Our only wish is that headphones would make a comeback as most groups on the beach always had some sort of device playing music. Not exactly what a true 'beach lover' looks for in a beach location - kinda defeats the purpose of listening to nature's music (the Gulf) doesn't it? - or conducive to reading or any conversation. (What was funny one afternoon, though, was one tent had rap music playing and another had country. Talk about dueling banjos...) Thankfully, it was breezy enough each day that sitting by the water drowned out that noise. Don't get me wrong, we like music - we just don't expect others to like what we like so we use headphones/earbuds. You know, out of courtesy and respect to those around us. This is also one reason we have tried out other locations over the years. Most, if not all, were initially populated by quiet, beach loving vacationers and noise issues were enforced. That's changed a lot over the years and some on Midnight Pass Road will accommodate those who wish to party (at all hours) and some will not. Thankfully, this is one location that still gets the meaning of...