The Good & the Bad. A fair and honest review.
I will start of with the good. The communication from the hosts is excellent. They are easy to get in touch with and talk to. The location of the Oakland park home is great. Its a quiet area, all residential. The neighbors are friendly, there is a canal nearby, and its very close to all the stores on Highway 1. About a 25 minute drive to the airport and a 10 minute drive the beach. Its a great centrally located home. There is outdoor parking for 3-4 vehicles. The community felt safe. Neighbors waved as you drove by. People were outside walking their dogs and talking to other neighbors. The house is all single level. The backyard has a ton of space with a nice inground pool, hot tub and some various activities. The home also had multiple pack and plays for babies and a high chair as well. Good property for a group of friends or families but be warned of the unusual home layout which I will mention below.
The bad. The photos and description are a bit deceptive. A lot of the things advertised were non-existent or did not work or did not match up to the images on the listing. Examples to follow. The tiki hut in the backyard had zero electricity. No lights, no fans, no outdoor TV. There was a loose propane tank and gas hose connected to a firepit with outdoor furniture. We had to inquire about this to find out the Hosts were aware and working through some permit issues. The corn hole set was broken and missing 4 or 5 bags as well as a broken metal golf club. The backyard had damaged/deflated floats and pool cleaning equipment scattered around. Most of the furniture pads were dirty. The pool has a light inside of it but it was broken and did not work so night swimming was a bit difficult. Be warned that the sprinkler did seem to go on daily and if you have things out there drying they may get wet.
The home's layout should be mentioned. The 2 bathrooms in the home are located inside the bedrooms. There is no common space/hall bath. All doors in the home have louvers and some don't close all the way. Perhaps due to the wood/humidity. Anyway, not much privacy and sound travels easily. If you are travelling with babies/toddlers keep this in mind as you will have to navigate through the rooms at night to use the bathrooms while they are sleeping. One room has a king bed and a small bathroom (no exhaust air vent, just a ceiling fan and a window) the tiling in the shower was not pitched correctly and the water pools up and must be squeegeed to get into the drain. Another room has sliding barn doors, a queen bed, no bathroom. And the last room has 2 full size beds and a decent size bathroom with a walk in glass shower. Sounds travel in this home so if privacy from other guests is a priority of yours keep that in mind. Also, when the showers are running you can hear it pretty loud in the bedroom by the living room, it sounds like the water valves are right behind the closet. The king bed frame is also very squeaky, it sounds like the wood is breaking anytime you get in/out of bed. Also we noticed that whoever made the bed did not use any fitted sheets and did not have pillow cases for the extra large pillows. They tried to shove the pillows into a regular size pillow case so half the pillow stuck out. Not very hygienic.
The kitchen does NOT have a refrigerator in it. It is located in the laundry room by the sliding glass door to the backyard. If you plan to cook in the home, keep this in mind. The home is older but has been modified on surface level only to look newer/modern. There was still painters tape on some areas where they must have painted, missing outlet covers. Some of the décor such as the artwork in the bedrooms even had price tags still on the front glass. The listing said the house has a bathtub, it does not. Its two showers, both have fixed shower heads, no hoses. Also no shelves or niches in the showers. You have to put your toiletries on the floor of the shower or outside the shower on the sink. The large walk in shower in one of the rooms had mold growing everywhere and a glass shower door that looks like it had soap scum for weeks. The other bathroom and kitchen also had drain flies, also known as sewer knats, probably due to poor drainage or standing water. We did notice that the smaller bathroom had no caulking on the sink and an exposed back where water could easily fall behind, maybe a source for the flies.
The house did have pots, pans, silverware, coffee, and most things needed to cook, however there was a dead cockroach or waterbug on its back in the cabinet under the sink. The listing also said there was an outdoor shower. We looked all over for this after a beach day and no one could find it despite the guidebook asking to please use the outdoor shower to wash off all sand before entering the home. We assume the guidebook about the home was copy/pasted from another property the hosts have. Its important to note this house also had NO smoke detectors, carbon monoxide, natural gas detectors or fire extinguisher present. If safety is a priority keep this in mind. Although there is a chime alarm on the front door, sliding glass door and some windows that makes a sound anytime they are opened. The listing also said the home had beach essentials which includes beach towels, chairs, umbrellas, snorkeling gear etc. The home