BeachBox Vacation Rentals — Local services in Galveston

WARNING: Do NOT rent a home managed by Beach Box, particularly not their property at 16603 Mansvelt in Jamaica Beach. This home is unsafe for all, but particularly for children, and the bottom portion of the home is uninhabitable. During our stay, we found many, many safety issues, such as: electrical outlets with missing or broken covers with exposed, live electrical wires, and loose railings and spindles on the outside stairs. But the worst part was the fact that we had to have the local fire department out during our stay because in the downstairs portion of the home the water heater was imporperly vented and there was a carbon monoxide exposure risk and the sewer vent was exposed in the bathroom ceiling and was emitting sewer gas. This rendered the dowstairs uninhabitable.

Also, this home was rented to us by Beach Box with a private pool, making it considerably more expensive than other rentals in the area. However, when we arrived on the first day, the pool was sparkling clean and we were just ready to get in. Then, Beach Box sent their pool company by to maintenance the pool. Not only did he maintenance the pool, he shocked it, which anyone who has a pool knows that it renders the pool unusable for at least 24 hours. Well, come to find out the maintenance person actually put chlorine tabs in the basket, filled up the chlorinator, and put the shock in the pool. The pool was at four times the chlorine level that is safe to swim in, as tested by us as well as the pool company when they came by the next day. The man from the pool company who came the next day to test it said that the chlorine level was "smoking" and at a 20....5 is the safety limit for a residential pool! That meant that we would not be able to swim in it for the entirety of our trip!

The house was also dirty, run down, and definitely not "well equipped" (especially the kitchen...no bowls, no hot pads, two old kitchen towels, a disorganized mess of old dirty pots and pans) as their listing states. But the worst part of all this is that we tried to have someone from beach box contact us by phone from the first day of our stay, to the last day of our stay and no one ever would. We sent then messages that went completely ignored, and in no way did they ever acknowledge or want to discuss with us the gravity of the issues we were facing. They would only send us messages saying, "we'll get back to you." And this was not over a weekend, these messages were on business days. When I finally found a direct number for them and got someone on the phone after several attempts, I told her what was going on and she said, "what do you want us to do about it? What do you want me to tell the owner?"

We have screenshots and pictures to prove all of this. It was very, very sad not to mention unprofessional that this company did not care at all about renting out this home that was partially uninhabitable and that they hired a pool company to do "maintenance" which rendered the pool unusable for the entirety of our stay

The only reason I gave one star is because I could not give it a 0. Please keep yourself and your family safe and do not rent from...

PLEASE READ. BUYER BEWARE. RENT FROM THEM AT YOUR OWN RISK. This is the most poorly run company I have ever encountered. The house we rented was so falsely advertised it is actually comical. As soon as we pulled into the driveway we were greeted with several overflowing trash bins and trash on the ground, when we walked into the house (after having to call them for the access code which they never sent) I knew it was going to be a disaster. It was in such poor shape we left early due to the slue of issues we encountered. It was disgusting, dirty and unsafe. Pest issues, holes in the floors rendering a whole section of the house unusable, and a backed up septic tank that was overflowing into the side yard, we couldn't even enjoy the pool or outdoor spaces because there was such a fly issue from the septic problem. Best part was when we tried to reach out about the issues they were so difficult to get ahold of. Unlike AirBnb where you communicate with an actual homeowner, these people do not care about the state of the houses they rent or the quality of service they provide to the customers. When the service tech came out to address the septic tank he couldn't believe the conditions and said it had been sitting like that for awhile because everything was dried out (Galveston is so humid that nothing dries out that isn't sitting long). At that time it was obvious that Beach Box must not do routine maintenance and inspections at these homes because had they done so before our stay this issue (and many others) would/should have been handled. The issues go on and on and we decided it was not somewhere we were comfortable staying in another night. I documented our departure with a timestamp and sent them my complaints and photos of the unacceptable conditions we encountered. This process was also a nightmare trying to get responses from them, I demanded to be contacted by someone in management so many times and never received a single phone call, I am not even sure they have a management department given how poorly this company is ran, I would actually be ashamed to admit if I were in a management roll at this company. When someone in "management" finally emailed me back they came back with a laughable offer to refund me the cleaning fee (which I do rightfully deserve because the house was dirty when we arrived - I should have taken a photo of the paper towel after I cleaned the countertops when we arrived). After some arguing back and forth we agreed on the terms of a measly refund on 08-30-2024 and to this day I have not heard a single word back from them or received the refund they promised. I have followed up with them 6 times. This company is a piece of work and our experience with them honestly makes me question the authenticity of the good reviews on this page. Better to look at their Yelp reviews and their BBB rating to get a true representation of who you will be dealing with if you choose to rent a property through them. And beware they rent their homes through AirBnb and VRBO as well, so take it from me and avoid any house with the Beach Box logo on it like the plague. Warning the photos I...

DO NOT RENT FROM BEACHBOX! This company is dishonest, and do not provide proper upkeep for the homes to the point that it is unsafe. I rented a house in San Leon for a family gathering. I specifically selected a house that had a private dock listed in the amenities. They show pictures of a nice pier on the website with a caption about fishing from the pier. When I arrived at the house I immediately noticed the pier looked wavy. When we walked over to look at it there was a huge dip in one area where only one board was still intact. A couple brave people tried to venture out to check the safety, but turned around before they could get halfway because the boards weren't even attached to any support beams. The wood in many areas was soft. When I went to get the key out of the lockbox it was very hard to open. The lockbox looks old. The pool and surrounding area looked nice, but I never used the pool because it was cold. When I entered the house I thought it looked nice, but when I walked into the kitchen I immediately saw 3 large roaches and several small ones. Each time I entered the kitchen after that I would find more roaches. The infestation was so bad I wasn't even able to use the kitchen. So right from the beginning the experience was bad. I could use 2 amenities I had paid for. I called Beachbox. They lied and said the pier wasn't a listed amenity. I took screenshots from the website and the guidebook they sent talking about fishing from the pier. They offered to send someone to spray the house, so at least they somewhat attempted to make that better, but they weren't going to do anything to resolve the loss of the use of amenities. I did finally right out ask for a refund. They did give me a $200 refund. Only a small percentage of what I paid. 2 of 4 of the video games didn't work. The ping pong table was warped. The paddles didn't have the padding on them so it was just wood on some of them. The wifi worked terrible. The rest of the house was adequate. I will never rent a house from them again. I think most of the positive reviews on them are fake. Please read the negative reviews before renting. You will see the same type of complaints over and over. BEWARE!

Update following their response below: I contacted them multiple times during my stay, so asking me to contact them now and they will try to make this right is only for show here. They had plenty of opportunities while I was there to make things right. I wasted so much of my vacation time calling and messaging them because they didn’t want to try to make things right. It made my time there more stressful than it needed to be. They know how to issue a refund if they truly wanted to make things right. I drove hundreds of miles, had family members drive hundreds of miles to meet me there, we bought fishing gear and licenses, I bought food to cook in the kitchen with the expectation as advertised to be able to fish from the pier and use the kitchen. I had to waste more time and spend more money figuring out how to feed everyone without using the kitchen and where I could take...