30A Escapes Vacation Rentals — Local services in Alys Beach

We stayed at the “La Luna Heart” at 9 Seawinds Court in September. Abbey was our contact during our stay and was very helpful and responsive. We experienced an issue with the carriage/guest house. When we first entered it there was a very strong smell. We thought perhaps since it had just been cleaned that the smell of whatever cleaning chemicals were used had not cleared. However, even with fans running and a few hours, the smell was overpowering. It quickly turned from a “cleaning solution” smell to a very strong mold odor. I contacted Abbey and she said she would send someone out to investigate. The smell was so bad we could not have people stay in there, so we created alternative arrangements inside the main house, thinking it would only be for a night. However when the first repairmen came by and went into the guest house, they immediately came back out and would not go back in without masks on! They said the mold was so bad they could literally see it growing inside the AC unit vents. They cleaned the surfaces and vents for several hours, and said it should not smell anymore. Another night of alternative arrangements inside the main house, thinking the guest house would be available soon. The next day the smell was just as strong as before. Again we contacted Abbey and she said they would have to send AC specialists out to address the issue. At this point it was obvious we would not get to use the guest house for the duration of our vacation, and we had already had maintenance repair visits multiple days of our vacation. Abbey stopped by for a quick visit and realized the extent of the mold issue and immediately scheduled a repair crew to come in. This was clearly a systemic mold issue, and my husband noted that when we originally booked the property there had been some reviews that noted a funny smell in the guest house back in December. Clearly the owners had been notified or were aware and had not adequately addressed the issue. The new property management company had not a sufficient job of evaluating the property- as it should have been un-rentable with that level of mold! We had small children and elderly guests with us and it is scary to think of the health consequences of staying in an environment for even one night with the amount of mold in the guest house. A few other small things that needed to be addressed, several outdoor electrical outlets were not sufficiently secured (gaps that exposed wiring, missing covers) that could pose a potential risk to children. Also, the grill was filthy and had not been cleaned from the last guest. It was covered in ants and the top was broken. To Abbey’s credit, she had it fixed immediately! While our experience with Abbey was wonderful while we were on property, once we left there was no follow up from management at 30A regarding the difficulty during our stay. I reached out several times and was offered a measly $400 since we were not able to utilize the guest house. That is half the cost of one night’s stay at that property, which we booked specifically for the additional space. Subsequent follow up calls went unreturned and I had to follow up multiple times to ASK for our security deposit to be refunded which has yet to happen (it is supposed to happen automatically but I have since discovered multiple reviews that also were not automatically refunded). While we loved the location and amenities of the property, there are some significant issues that need to be addressed. While we originally left thinking we would give it another chance next year, the actions (or lack thereof) of 30A and the insulting refund of $400 for the inconvenience and health risk that the mold in the guest house posed has made us think twice. To be fair, we weren’t even looking for a refund, but would have taken an opportunity to visit again at a serious discount before making a judgment on the property. We will be visiting 30A for many years to come, but I can’t say that we will be booking with 30A again. I shouldn’t have to manage the property management company for...

WOW. Please, for your own good, hang with me for a minute and read this entirely to save yourself from a nightmare. Where do I start? What a HUGE waste of money. Our experience was a perfect example of staying in rental property that a slum lord owns and runs. They take your money and do not care in the least about your experience. We checked in Saturday, the pool was warm as requested. In advance we requested the pool be heated and asked what temp the hot tub would be. The response was that the hot tub would be 95 and pool 90. All documented in the VRBO inbox. Although 95 was not an actual hot tub temp, we were disappointed but pleased with the temp the pool would be heated considering the time of the year and for the children in our home. Adults would just take one for the team. Sunday, the the 3rd family arrived and we quickly realized not only the 1st floor shower didn't have hot water, but the Jack and Jill on the second floor had hot water for maybe 60 seconds. We contacted management and they assured us they would fix it which was reassuring. We put a load of wet pool towels in the dryer (on first floor laundry - same floor all the kids were sleeping) at around 10pm. Thank the Lord one of the adults went downstairs about 30 minutes later to find all children asleep and sweating and the dryer vent was not connected at all. Picture your children sleeping and its 90 ish degrees and the dryer was going to run for an additional 30 minutes with intense heat blasting behind the dryer at the drywall. HUGE fire hazard that could have ended terribly in a house on fire and sleeping children unable to wake up and get out. Contacted management and they fixed it pretty promptly so we were understanding but concerned about now having cold water and a house that could have easily caught on fire. Monday we notice no heat to the pool or hot tub. It was cold so no more swimming. Management comes out and their feedback was the hot tub isn't a hot tub but a water feature. See pics. Do you think that looks like a water heater? False advertisement. Looks like a hot tub AND has seats and jets... you decide if you think it's actually a hot tub. The water feature excuse was obviously to get out of heating it. Management did not fix it although they said it was all working. It was not. We continued to call back EVERY SINGLE DAY, and it was never fixed the entire time we were there. We paid more than other homes we could have rented because we wanted a hot tub and heated pool -in April it is necessary due to inconsistent weather. We paid almost 12k for this week. We could have spent thousands less and got no pool/hottub. Back to the hot water situation on the 1st floor and 2nd.... It was NEVER fixed. Read that again. 7 day stay with cold water in 2/3 bathrooms. Can you imagine? Spending that kind of money to guarantee heated pool and hot tub and it not getting what you paid for but on top of that, you go to shower only to find cold water only. I will say the jack and jill produced maybe 60 seconds of hot water before going completely cold but thats not acceptable! We had management come out numerous times, and they successfully reproduced the problems we were having and agreed it didn't work, yet still couldn't figure out why it was happening. One man said he thinks the pipes were somehow not installed correctly but would have to take out sheet rock to get to the bottom of it. Almost 12k dollars and 1 week of cold showers for 2/3 of our group. They tried to fix it many times, so I will give them props for that, but at the end of the day, the problem was not mitigated.We worked very hard to save up money for this trip and the promises made were not upheld. I do not recommend this property AT ALL. They are supposedly sending a reimbursement for less than 10% of what we paid. You tell me if you think that is the right thing to do. I own rental property and I would NEVER handle this this way because my conscience wouldn't allow it. People work hard for their money, plus inflation, and don't deserve this. You've...

We are annual beach house renters, but this was our first experience with renting a beach house on 30A. We had some hiccups with the management company in the beginning and I felt like communication could’ve been stronger, but I think many of the issues we had were because this house (Seacrest Serenity) is new to renting and there are just some kinks to be worked out. Overall, I feel like the management company (who is also the homeowner) was responsive to my concerns before our stay and attentive to our needs during our stay.

The home itself is beautiful and immaculately maintained and very clean upon our arrival. A member of the 30A Escapes team met us at the house shortly after our arrival to make sure we were getting acclimated okay. When we reported a couple of issues during our stay, maintenance responded very quickly. Our main issue during our stay was that the golf cart battery could not be charged without tripping the breaker constantly. No matter what outlet we plugged the golf cart into, the breaker would trip. There are no GFCI outlets in the home that we could find.

The home is in a great location just off 30A. The neighborhood is small and quiet and felt like a nice retreat from the busyness of Seaside and Rosemary. Both Seaside and Rosemary are a short drive from the house by car. Seaside is way too far for a golf cart drive and Rosemary doesn’t allow golf carts so a car is the perfect way to reach both towns quickly. The Seacrest Drive beach access is just at the end of the road, but we didn’t use that beach access because you aren’t able to rent beach set up service there as it’s a private beach. We couldn’t rent beach set up service at Seacrest Condos beach access either, because only condo renters can rent beach set up service there. We were able to rent beach set up service through Vacayzen at the Gulf Lakes beach access point, which is about .9 miles from the home. It is easily accessible via golf cart. My husband dropped off all of us and our beach gear at the entrance to the Gulf Lakes beach access point then drove the golf cart back to the house and rode a bike back to the beach. There is bike parking at the beach access point but not golf cart parking – just FYI. If you don’t want or need to rent beach set up service, you can bring your own gear to the Seacrest Drive beach access point at the end of the road just fine. The stairs are quite steep over the dunes in both locations though. Be prepared for that. The home does provide beach chairs but not a beach umbrella so take that into consideration when deciding which beach access point to use.

The kitchen is well-stocked with lots of space for food storage. Having both a coffee maker and a Keurig was nice. We left our salt, pepper, sugar, and coffee filters for the next renters because none of those are provided with the home. However, we had ample paper towels and toilet paper provided with the home for our arrival and each bathroom had small travel size shampoos, conditioners, soaps, and lotions. The primary bedroom closet has a few hangers and lots of shelving and drawers for clothing storage. We had so much room for our things. The house is spaced out enough that we felt comfortable as a party of 7. Everyone had more than enough room and we never felt on top of each other. The beds were so comfortable, and we appreciated having two soft pillows and two firm pillows in each bed. It’s nice to have options for each guest.

Our first stay on 30A was a dream and none of us wanted to leave. We already want to re-book the house for next summer. We can’t...