Dear [owners' names redacted], My family and I (3 adults and 2 kids) recently had the opportunity to stay in your wonderful Perdido Key condo. The location, layout, and views from your penthouse were fantastic and this is our second consecutive year staying in the building. While we did enjoy our visit, we felt your condo had enough shortcomings to create undue frustration in us -- and likely in other guests, as well. We hope to be the people who can speak on behalf of the others who might just leave in silence and not re-book again. We apologize for contacting your directly, but as you’ll read below, management gave us little choice and we did tell them we’d be writing you.
1. General lack of cleanliness. We found several pieces of popcorn in plain view under the edge of the couch. There were obvious hairs in all three showers and tubs. Most beds had some hair in them. The refrigerator looked hastily cleaned with entire shelves untouched; it even had a used can of dip sitting on top. All told, we spend 3-5 hours on basic cleanup and vacuuming rather than face the inconvenience and privacy concerns of scheduling and waiting for the cleaning crew. Management insisted that the cleaning crew supervisor had reviewed the unit personally, which is especially concerning.
2. Thinly-stocked kitchen. Compared to other condos and homes in this price range, the kitchen was lacking in a lot of basic amenities. I would recommend some fresh silverware, new pots and skillets, and maybe a few sets of plastic cups. The cookware was very worn, some silverware was falling apart, and there was just a single plastic cup in the cabinets. Several of the plates and mugs were chipped, some with full cracks running through them.
3. Main TV/soundbar not working? I spent a couple hours trying every possible configuration I could (I’m no stranger to home theatre setups). But the main issue was the lack of remote for the Samsung TV itself. The two universal remotes kept resetting and defaulting to other settings on their own. Ultimately, we were able to watch cable with no volume control. After a day of this, we simply took the TV from the master bedroom and set it up on the coffee table.
4. Other electronics. There were no clocks (except the microwave) in the entire unit. There was also no VHS player (as advertised) for our stack of kids’ movies we brought. On the last day there, we finally found the lone DVD player, which was under a lamp in the twin bedroom. Ideally, we would have expected this to be in the main living area or maybe even one with each TV. The twin bedroom also had a table lamp resting on top of an upside-down cooking pot, which was odd.
5. Furniture wear & tear. We found no fewer than 7 separate screws that had fallen from the furniture – mainly the dining table and coffee table. Several of the dining chair seat cushions were completely detached from the frames. We kept all screws out of reach of the children, such as in drawers or on the fireplace mantle.
6. Wifi speeds. Our wireless speeds were around 1-2 Mbps the entire time. Typical cable internet should be in the 10-100 Mbps range, depending on provider and service level. This made it difficult for us to do internet streaming video, which we rely on heavily for lack of other options (see #3 and #4 above).
I finally had a chance to address all of the above issues in person with the acting manager, [name], around last Tuesday or Wednesday. She said she would look into these and contact you with our concerns. However, on Friday, [acting manager] told me she didn’t have the authority to contact you and that I had to wait on the regular manager, [name] (who was out that week). It was especially frustrating to put my concerns in writing, be given some hope that it would be handled, then told another story. My request for them to convey to you was to please see if you would adjust the rate by $600, commensurate with the 2BR units (which is $1500/wk plus taxes). We felt that, given the lack of amenities and time spent working around the unit, this is a reasonable request for our week there. We also don’t feel that we (or you) should pay for this round of cleaning, given the last set of results.
I hope you find this feedback useful and please know that we did enjoy our stay – we ourselves are landlords and we know how difficult it can be to keep up the property without regular tenant feedback (and complaints). If you could please address the above issues and consider a rate adjustment for this visit, we would strongly consider 1204-A next summer at the regular posted rate. However, as of this point in time, our business with the Beach and Yacht Club is finished. I have attached several pictures for your review, as well [note: pictures covered most of the above items for proof, see them all below].
Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.
Professional? Courteous? Reasonable? Thorough? Helpful? Informative? I sure hope so.
And here's what I got back:
Mr XXX,
After some investigation of my own and in speaking with the
property manager I think it would be best for you to find another condo to rent
in the future.
Thanks
[Owner]I hope you find this as unbelievable as I did...and here are the pictures we sent. Not at all appropriate, in our opinions, for a fairly high-end condo:
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