The place itself is nice, quite spacious, kept well maintained, bed is huge and very comfortable. It was very tidy and clean when we arrived. I was obsessed with the shower; it was very very nice.
The best part about this Airbnb location is that you have the beach view right outside your window. You can literally walk to the to and from the beach within seconds. This made it so easy to walk back and forth with my toddler. If we needed to quickly grab something we could go and be back within seconds. The nice thing about the beach is it provides rentals such as chairs, tents and umbrellas for free from 9am-5pm so we didn’t have to worry about bringing our own or having to be out in the sun with no shade. Another nice thing about the beach is it also has showers to wash off all the sand. We enjoyed the beach overall, the only downside about it was there was a ton of seaweed which made it hard to enjoy but we made the best of it. We did try Miami Beach thinking maybe it would be better but it wasn’t at all. Was actually worse so we ended up driving 45min back and just enjoyed the beach right outside the Airbnb.
One more good thing we enjoyed was the restaurant called Latitudes. It was right next to the Airbnb attached to the Marriott hotel. It was absolutely delicious. We went for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast is amazing - the pancakes are to die for. Lunch and dinner can be better but if go for the burger you won’t be disappointed.
Now for the bad parts of the Airbnb. I only have a few things to comment on. First, the communication from the host was not the best. I received the check-in instructions a day prior to our arrival. In those instructions I was asked to provide a license plate number of our vehicle (if arriving in one) and our ETA. I responded right away and asked if early check-in would be possible as we were driving 19hrs to get here and wanted to rest as soon as we arrive. Our ETA was 2-2.5hrs before check-in time (check-in was 3pm). I never got a response back. I figured maybe the host was waiting to respond until the day of check-in. That wasn’t the case at all. It was now the next day (day of check-in), I sent another message with an updated ETA. Still never got a response. We said to ourselves we will just have to get there and hope we can get in the room. When we arrived I was so confused on how to get to the actual Airbnb. In the instructions it says to ask the front desk. There was no front desk. I asked the lady that owned the Tiki Bar right outside the place if she knew where I would need to check-in. She said they weren’t part of Airbnb and I would have to contact the host. I then called the number I was given for the host, twice and got sent to VM. I then received a text message right away that said “Can you text me, I am either busy or in the middle of something.” I found this response to be downright rude and unprofessional. As a host, communicating with your guests should be the most important thing. It should be key to being a great host. When I told the host I was there and unsure of how to check-in, the host responded with “You were sent check-in instructions”. I didn’t appreciate this at all. I was very upset and even thought for a second I might have gotten scammed because I was so shocked at the hosts responses. The only time I ever got a kind response was the next day when the host sent me a message on Airbnb stating they hoped we enjoyed our first night. Of course it read as a “copy and paste” type of message so I didn’t bother to reply. Didn’t care to after the day prior. Let me also mention, they didn’t hesitate to send a kind message the day before check-out to make sure we would be leaving by 11am & another message asking for a five star review. Ironic right. Second bad thing I’ll comment on is the lock on the front door. It needs to be changed to actually lock. It’ll only open with the code but to lock it you have to turn the part where you put the key in or it won’t lock. Not safe. We had to take our valuables with us every time we left in case anyone tried to break in. If anything got stolen it would’ve just been our clothes, shoes, etc. The last thing I’ll comment on is the noise you should be prepared for. Your upstairs neighbors you will hear the entire time. Kids running around or just walking in general. Right outside the Airbnb is the Tiki bar I previously mentioned that stays open until midnight. You’ll hear a live band playing all night and drunk men being drunk men. We did fear of one of the men getting too drunk and trying to force there way in but fortunately nothing happened during our stay. So just be prepared for all of that noise if you decided to rent this Airbnb.
If you read this far I apologize for such a lengthy review but I like to be as honest as possible in all my reviews in hopes it may be of any help to future Airbnb renters.