Destin Luxury Real Estate

"We (3 adult women) booked condo 912A at Majestic Sun via AirBnB Listing: "Majestic Sun condo with direct gulf views" back in February for a quiet beach getaway this October and our trip was anything but relaxing. Our "host" was Ginger, property management executive at Destin Luxury Real Estate & Rental. When we arrived, we noticed many cleanliness issues. Basically only the bare minimum is done between guests. Bedding, towels, sweeping. None of the walls or trim are wiped down, the comforters are not washed, the furniture and rugs are not cleaned. Every single throw pillow was stained, dingy, and falling apart. We immediately took all of them off of all the furniture. Same with the comforter that was also super gross. I slept with no blankets the first night until I found a clean one in the closet that I wasn't completely grossed out by. Thank god I always bring my own pillow. There were questionable smears on both bathroom doors. What looked like a blood splatter on the bathroom wall. All of the vents throughout the condo were filthy and peeling paint like they tried to paint over the gross instead of clean it. And the mold....Mold on our shower curtain and shower liner, mold around all the vents. Both shower curtains in both bathrooms were RUSTED TO THE HOOKS. The patio door track was disgusting. And every rug in the unit has clearly never been cleaned beyond vacuuming. There was gum smashed into the rug in our room. My sister refused to put her bare feet on that rug. We found 2 beach chairs in the master bedroom closet and went to pull them out of the bags to look at them and they were FULL of sand. Rusty, old sand. These are not nit-picky, minor things. We tried to ignore it all and not be "difficult" but, in retrospect, that was a mistake. We were not comfortable. My sister booked this room and contacted Ginger upon check-in Saturday night that we only had 1 wristband. Wristbands are required at Majestic Sun to use the pool, fitness center, etc. We didn't hear from her until Monday and my sister had to go to the HOA office to get more. No apologies, no nothing. I also want to note that the AC in the unit is locked at 70 degrees and cannot be adjusted any lower. This made me VERY angry, personally, as I am always hot and if I'm paying for a place to stay, I should be comfortable. Everytime we came back to the room after being out, it was warm and humid in the unit. We also mentioned this to Ginger and she didn't even acknowledge it. And if this all wasn't bad enough, late wednesday evening I was sitting on the living room sofa (that is also a pullout)...on top of a beach towel because both the couch and loveseat were covered in stains....when a bed bug crawled across the middle cushion. I'm very familiar with bed bugs from my prior job with DHHS. We were disgusted and immediately tore apart the entire unit, checking all furniture and bedding for more. We found one other dead one under the bed in the 2nd bedroom. And as a bonus, more mold on underside of the mattress! That was it for us, we were done. We took photos of everything and contacted Ginger on AirBnb and her 2 contact numbers (she doesn't like to answer, so you need both.) We got almost no sleep that night because it was too late to pack up then, so we packed up in the morning and left 2 days early. Ginger didn't call us until Thursday afternoon and offered flippant apologies, many excuses for all the mold (people leave the patio doors open) and cleanliness problems (it's right after the summer rush and they haven't come in yet to do a thorough cleaning), and only refunded us the 2 days we would not be staying. She also told us that they did have a bed bug issue and had exterminators in to spray a few weeks prior and this was never disclosed to us. I am appalled we were still charged $200 a night for a unit more disgusting than a $50 a night motel. The photos on the listing are clearly years old and when we looked at more recent reviews from September and October, they echoed our experience. Do NOT book with this company!"

"If If I could give them less than a negative 5 stars I definitely would. My reservation was canceled on April 27th and I did not realize until may 3rd that it had been canceled via email. I called and email several times before I ever got a response. I finally got in touch with Ginger and she told me they overbooked the property. My reservation was for may 25th so it was less than a month really 22 days before my reservation. So on May 3rd I was put in a position to find a new place in less than 22 days. Also I didn't receive a timely refund so that was an aggravating situation because I wanted my money back so I could find a place with the small timeframe I was given. Then on top of that it was Memorial Day weekend, so at that point it was not many places for a family of 12 left available. I finally received my refund on May 10th. The crazy part is they didn't automatically issue my refund back after cancelation on April 26th. When I finally talked to Ginger on May 3rd that's when Ginger claimed she was going to issue a refund that would only take 2 days to be refunded which is absolutely ridiculous. So I'm assuming If I did not call on May 3rd which was 7 days after they cancelled my reservation I wouldn't have received a refund. If they canceled why not send my money back immediately on April 26th? They are horrible and unreliable. Pretty much Ginger did not care about the situation me and family was placed in. Furthermore Ginger had already implied the place was worth way more than what they were renting it out for and it would go higher the next week so I'm assuming they found somebody to pay more for Memorial Day weekend that's why I feel like this situation ultimately happened. Also when I first contacted her about the property she said it was a new rental but when all the cancelation situation started she claimed it was long term renter who rents this home on a regular basis that why she said she had to give them the rental instead of me. Funny thing is I read this same incident happened in another review from someone esle about 6 months ago so I'm assuming that's the regular excuse they give to everyone when they cancel on them. My mama's 70th Birthday was ruined. If you have important plans please find somewhere else to stay you will thank me later!!!! Run fast! The properties look amazing but you can't ever get in contact with anyone. Obviously Ginger works a skip to my lou schedule because she is never available but that's the only person available you can talk to."

"Absolutely loved staying in Sandestin at the Luau. It's a great location with something for everyone. Perfect getaway!"

"I rented The Sandcastle property to host an intimate wedding on 1/1/2022, and it was an amazing place to host an event/ large vacation group! Due to past reviews i was hesitant to book at first, but keep in mind those reviews were written while different management was in charge. They made sure the house was spotless for my event, and they’re even making home improvements! We visited the house months before the wedding and they added siding to the bottom story which made the place nicer looking/ blocked wind for the ceremony so plus plus!! We also ran into an issue with the lights for the wedding setting the breaker off, and since it’s such a big house we (being 15+ people) looked everywhere and still couldn’t find it! The manager drove out to the house personally, on New Years Eve, to make sure everything was handled for my wedding. Top tier customer service i can’t say that enough!! No house is perfect, expect there to be quirks. 10/10 will book again!"