This home is very beautiful and located just blocks from the beach. The house is located in a quiet neighborhood just off the Intercoastal Waterway. As a frequent traveler, we have stayed in numerous Airbnb properties, and often have questions that are not answered in the listing itself. I wanted to provide a little more detail about this home to answer a few of the questions we had before our visit.
LOCATION. The home is located just off the Hollywood draw bridge on the north side of the Intercoastal Waterway. The walk from the house to the beach was 11 minutes. The bridge has a dedicated pedestrian path, so walking across the bridge is very safe and easy. There is beach parking if you wanted to drive which costs about $4.00 per hour through the week, and more on the weekends. There are tons of shops and restaurants along the Broadwalk, so that makes this house very convenient.
BEDS/BEDROOMS: The home has a total of 6 beds (plus two inflatable twin mattresses). On the first floor, there is a master suite with a king bed and private bath. The first floor master has sliding doors that open to a patio off the pool. Also on the first floor, there is a second bedroom with a double bed, and a third bedroom with two twin beds. The double/twins share a bathroom at the end of the hall. On the second floor, there is a master suite with a king bed and a private bath. There is also a queen bed located in the open balcony area, which would share the master suite bathroom. Both the master suite and balcony areas have an outdoor balcony overlooking the pool. Note that the queen bed has no doors or privacy, so it is likely better for kids to share this area.
INDOOR KITCHEN: The kitchen has very standard/basic amenities such as pots, pans, plates, cups, utensils and a few small appliances like coffee maker and blender. We found that it became too difficult to keep the few plates and cups washed, so we ended up buying paper plates and cups to assure we had sufficient dinnerware for all three meals. There were 4 plastic plates and 4 glass plates, so the evening we had guests, there would not have been sufficient plates without using disposable dinnerware.
OUTDOOR KITCHEN: There is a beautiful outdoor kitchen off the pool area. There is a small sink, large gas grill and a table - all of which you have access to. You will not have access to the pool house that is attached to the outdoor kitchen, but there is a small bathroom off the indoor kitchen that opens to the pool area, so guests have access to a restroom while swimming in the pool.
POOL: There is a heated pool with a jacuzzi located within the pool itself. The pool area was very nice, and we spent a lot of time relaxing by the pool. There are four lounge chairs, and several seating areas around the pool to sit. There is some construction debris around the pool and pool house, which detracts somewhat from its ambiance but we got past that. There are lights in the pool, which unfortunately we did not learn how to use until the very last evening, but the colorful lights are a fun touch.
AMENITIES: The host will give you 1 bath towel for each guest in the home, and 1 "beach" towel (also a bath towel) for each guest. The house does not come with face towels, and had very limited hand towels and kitchen towels. We ended up purchasing a complete set of towels from Target so we would each have clean towels and wash cloths during the trip (we then bought a large duffel bag and brought them all home). There is a washing machine and dryer, and we did laundry everyday to assure we had a constant supply of towels. We also bought beach towels at Sam's because the towels provided were smaller and thin. That all comes down to what you prefer. We felt the amenities in the home were a little lacking. We only found 1 TV in the home that was working although there are TVs in most of the rooms. There are no local or cable channels on any of the TVs so we were not able to get the local news or weather. Families traveling with smaller children who might rely on a TV for some "downtime" out of the sun should note that only the TV in the main living room is functional, and you can get Netflix and a few other streaming services. There were quite a few light bulbs out while we were there, which made the house a bit dark. When we arrived, the coffee maker and blender did not work, but we notified the host, and she was able to have new ones delivered to us before the end of our stay (which we really appreciated).
HOST: The host generally responded quickly to inquiries and issues. There were a couple of miscommunications as to where things were located, but I believe that was more related to a language barrier (I don't believe English is her first language).
Overall, we had a great experience at this property. PROS: The home's location near the Beach and Broadwalk. The beautiful pool area with outdoor kitchen. CONS: Lack of overall amenities (towels, kitchenware, TVs). Some general home maintenance and organization is needed.