PROS:
I totally agree with the majority of the reviews here! Sam and Connie's place is crazy awesome- location is unreal, scenery is gorgeous, bed is comfortable, and Sam and Connie are awesome with helping suggest local and awesome things to do. In fact, the kitchen is fully equipped with tons of things (plus little extras) and under the sink in the bathroom (and above the sink) there are lots of other little things to help with sunburns, dry skin, chipped nail polish, etc. These touches made it feel much more relaxed and settled.
My husband and I were so happy with the free parking, the beach access, the gorgeous sunsets (!!!), and the location. We felt as though we did so much better than if we were to stay at the resorts (no resort fee! no parking fee! no daily charge for breakfast!) and we loved how well decorated and cozy the condo was.
CONS:
There were two drawbacks, one was that I was expecting the room to get a LOT cooler at night. My husband and I were sticky and humid every night, to the point where the window was wide open (which concerned my husband regarding security as we are on the bottom floor and the screen is a very flimsy item keeping you from strangers), the ceiling fans and the floor fans were on high and we were both without even the basic sheet on for the majority of the night. There was no way for us to do anything else to make it cooler, aside from eliminating the screen, which just wasn't an option. I understand that this is viewed as a safe area, but there are people who prey on tourists, and an open door on the ground level with only a screen dividing us from "them" makes us uneasy, to say the least. For reference, we are from Texas (so we also know heat), and daily temperature was 84 and nightly temperature was 74.
This was definitely unfortunate as we were never able to relax in the condo, especially during the daytime due to the suffocating heat.
The second issue was that the hot water in the shower was never really hot. Warm, yes. But with the shower handle turned all the way to the "hot" side, it was always just a touch above warm. Although it wasn't necessary to have a super hot shower (especially with the room temperature) it would have been nice to enjoy a hot shower after seeing the mantra rays in the ocean at night (which was super cold).
Taken together, we still feel like this was a good deal but we wish we had known more about how hot the condo would be prior to committing...and the security sacrifices that would be made to try to make the room cooler.