Holiday Beach Rentals — Local services in Panama City Beach

Although the rating indicates 1 star, I have to give Holiday Beach Rentals zero out of five stars because of our terrible experience of having our vacation cancelled (no zero star options). We booked a new construction home to celebrate my Mom's 70th birthday over spring break. I spoke with Lori Mathews who confirmed the home would be done in time for our vacation. If it wasn't done in time, she told me that they would either place us in a similar home that is one of their rentals, work with rental properties in the area to find us a similar rental, or they would give us a week at the property later in the year. She also said that they never have problems with completing the homes on time (with one exception over many years).

Unfortunately, five weeks before the vacation, they cancelled the week. They said it is new construction, and these things happen. They had one other property they could offer, but it was not on the beach. However, Michelle (whom I spoke to), could not provide any specifics and said she would email me with information. She emailed me with the information on Friday evening, which I responded to Sunday evening (earliest possible response because I was travelling for work). Unfortunately, Holiday Beach Rentals did not place a hold on the property they offered as the replacement property. They rented it out over the weekend and did not check with us before doing so. As a result, they have no other properties to offer and can only provide a refund.

Now, Michelle says the remaining promises (i.e. to work with other companies in the area or to give us a week later in the year) are not true. After arguing with her on the phone about this, she agreed to reach out to one other company in the area. I am waiting to find out the outcome of this. However, it is unfortunate that I had push so hard to get a small percentage of the service that they promised initially. She also seemed to blame me for not responding to confirm the new home between Friday evening and Sunday evening (despite the fact they didn't check with us before renting it to someone else).

I would not trust this rental company. Unfortunately, their false promises and poor customer service have now put my family into a lurch. We have no where to travel for my Mom's 70th birthday and spring break - a vacation in which my whole family has been very excited about doing.

If Holiday Beach Rentals decides to deliver on the promise and level of customer service that they initially promised, I will revise this review accordingly. However, if a revision is not made, it will be safe to assume that we were left with a cancelled vacation week and our own efforts and some luck to find a rental a few weeks before spring break.

Also, it is important to note that the other previously written Google reviews (Lori and Dorothy) for this company are employees of the...

House was beautiful! Customer service was so so. Cleanliness was lacking. House was dusty, you could write in it and read clearly from a distance in some places, light fixtures were especially bad. Shower floors were mildewed. Some mold in the seams of the showers. No niches for toiletries in some showers, odd. The boardwalk to beach had no railings, which we found odd. The porch is starting to splinter a lot where the sun hits it, we had one person get a splinter. The dishwasher leaked and smelled awful when we tried to use it the first evening, friday. Waited for maintenance the next day, Saturday, he was unable to fix it. We had to call back to find out when the appliance repairman would be out. Wednesday was the earliest appointment. Tuesday we tried to wash towels, washing machine wasn't working properly. Waited for maintenance Tuesday. They couldn't fix it, told us appliance guy would Wednesday, when he came out for dishwasher. The time window Wednesday was 10-2 pm, guy shows up just before 2. He gets the dishwasher working, but now it smells rancid in house so we have to turn off ac and air out house, they have signs posted that running ac lower than 72 will freeze up unit (dont want to risk that). He says the washing machine will only work with all hot water, but it'll finish a cycle. Nope, final rinse has cold water, so we have to run a rinse and spin cycle to finish wash, at least spin enough water out of them so they'll dry. Not sure how clean anything got, or whether all detergent was rinsed out. Plus who wants to wash their dark clothes or jeans on hot? The only thing ever offered to make our stay more pleasant was to wash our towels for us. We hand washed dishes for 9 people for 5 days. We couldn't wash clothes properly all week. Plus we had to wait around for repair men 3 days of our vacation. But the house was spacious enough and would be very nice if they took...

I am physically in one of their properties as I write this. Without question the WORST experience I have ever had in any VRBO rental. While the location was amazing that’s where all ended. We had no hot water for the first 2 days of our 5 day stay. Management refused to reach out and contact me despite pleading for someone to call me. Electricity went out day 2 along with internet. I used their “urgent request” panel meant for 24 hour response 15 times - no one ever called me. I finally got through on their phone number and at first the call service refused to send anyone out. I was told it was a holiday weekend (something I was up charged for). After numerous threats someone was sent out twice - both extremely nice gentlemen and empathic. Neither of whom fixed our issues. Finally on day 3 someone came out and addressed our hot water issues. I fixed the rest of it myself at my expense and time. As added bonus, it is the most barren rental I have ever seen. They don’t have salt in the kitchen. They have a nice grill and no charcoal. Their is a tiny pool but they shut the heat off at night. We have 6 boys and paid to have a place with a pool only so they could come out when the company shuts the heated water off and they get cold showers when they come in. I would avoid this place like covid. Again, amazing location but horrible management. They don’t care and won’t be there to help you. Also - beware tons of hidden fees after the fact (including a pool heating fee even though they shut the heat off at night and threaten you if you try to tamper with their heater), exorbitant cleaning fee (even though their checkout instructions ask you to do a lot the clean up yourself). I would avoid this company and all of their properties...