Connect Coastal Vacation Rentals — Local services in Galveston

We hired Connect Coastal (Sean Cerelli) to manage our property as a short term rental. This company is very unprofessional and irresponsible. We used the property ourselves one weekend. When we showed up, the grass was up to our knees, the trash can was in the middle of the yard over flowing with trash, and inside we had roaches. Coastal connection did not manage or take care of our property. When something needed repair , even a light bulb change, he would call us and ask us to do it or charge us an exorbitant amount for something as small as changing an air filter ($40). On Biker weekend , the renters left black tire marks all over the driveway, broke a window and tore a screen. When addressing these damages with Sean, he refused to acknowledge they occurred that weekend. We have security cameras outside therefore we know this was done that weekend. We also know that Sean nor any other employee rarely showed up to check on the house. Only the cleaning ladies came in after a renter left the premises. We did not renew our contract with this company for obvious reasons and when we were to receive our final payment for rentals, deducted from it was a huge cleaning bill for several items to include a comforter and shams for which were taken from the house and never returned. Not only did we have to pay to have them cleaned , we have to pay to replace them. Do not hire Coastal Connections to manage your property. We have since hired a different management company and we have been very pleased with the care and professionalism they have given us...

Stay away from this business. On May 5th, I booked a family vacation directly from the website for this Memorial Day weekend. I paid fully at the time, but no email confirmation. I called the office and Sean told me do not worry. The next day, there was still no detail confirmation about my booking. I called again and Sean told me to text him the image of booking number and property, but then no reply from him.

A week later, on May 11th, I reveiced an emal from an account manager Noel to inform me that my booking was canceled cos the system error. All their other properties were fully booked so I asked her to refund my money. After a week, I emailed her again cos the refund was no where to be found, but no response. May 17th, I called the office and Sean promised to call me back for detail, but never did. May 18th, I called again, he didn't pick up the phone, so I left an voicemail. May 19th, after several calls to the office, which nobody answered. Sean texted me back that it took another 2 days for a refund and contact him again if I didn't receive it.

I was so sick of this unprofessional service. I paid more than $1500 to make the family vacation memorable. This vacation means a lot for us. You guys messed up, but at least made it right. After multiple attempts, I had to call my bank to dispute and finally received my refund on May 21.

I travel a lot and book with many rental properties before, but this was the only one that made me really doubt about legitimate of the business. Run, run away from this...

I booked one of the properties they manage through Airbnb. They contacted me with a seemingly legitimate reason for a last minute cancellation (leak and water damage). But… they told me to cancel the Airbnb booking myself “for a full refund” even though I was in the non-refundable period. Of course I didn't do that, so I have no way to know if they would have refunded me outside of the Airbnb process. There’s no customer focus here though. They should have followed Airbnb’s policy and just cancelled the booking themselves. I will avoid them. If you book with them, make sure you have extra time to deal with any issues because you are not a priority for them. Do not give in to their politely worded inappropriate requests!

Update: Once Airbnb forced them to properly cancel the booking on their end, Airbnb instantly processed my refund. CC’s request to go through a different process was completely illegitimate and could never have worked as well as properly going through Airbnb. Totally unprofessional.

Update 2: Airbnb also helped cover the difference in price for the new booking I made since this house became available. I would not have had access to this if I had followed their direction to cancel the booking myself. This was a significant amount of money. These folks really do not care...