Waterscape Condominiums By Resortquest

Stains everywhere on bed ,on the living room furniture and on the curtains… most of our vacation was ruined because then they were sending cleaning people to clean while we were in the room…shouldn’t these rooms be sanitized PRIOR to arrival??? This resort is a NO!!!! I wouldn’t want anyone else to go through what we did!!! Very unsanitary place!!!

The entire condo needed a deep clean. The floors made our feet black within minutes of arrival, there was dirt and bugs in the tracks of the sliding door, the patio needed power washed and the furniture was broken/dirty/rusted, there was poop smeared on the corner of the wall in the half bathroom upon first entry, the baseboards and floors and walls and grout all needed a good scrubbing, the ceiling and light in the laundry room was stained and gross. All of the furniture was outdated and well past its point of use. The patio furniture was broken and rusted and dirty, the sliding screen doors were ripped and difficult to close, when we laid on the beds we immediately sunk in and it was like sleeping on top of tissue paper, the one hairdryer was broken, the dryer took 3-6 cycles to dry any sized load and drying towels was next to impossible, there was nowhere to store food that wasn’t refrigerated, and there was residue from stickers all over the front door. On top of all of that, the outlets didn’t all work and the ones that did would spark when we put our chargers in them, our smoke detectors beeped and then one night the alarms were blaring, and we lost all electricity in the master bedroom for almost two days. This condo is outdated and not well maintained or cleaned. Southern was horrible with communication, didn’t fix any of the issues that we brought up to them except for the replacement of one of the three smoke detectors, we had no working smoke detectors and no electricity in the master for two days, and the one property manager was beyond rude and unprofessional upon entry into the condo on our last day. They then followed our stay up by sending a scam email at 10:30pm after we got home saying that we broke a coffee table and owed $300 and the picture they sent was obviously staged (leg of table was unscrewed by someone and photo showed table somehow still upright while missing a leg). After I provided proof with a photo of the table with all four legs from the day before departure, went back and forth with the employees, I ended up finally reaching someone who could help at VTrips bc I had emailed the CEO with concerns about Southern Vacation branch in Fort Walton. Do not stay here unless you want your vacation to turn into a stressful headache and make sure that you take pictures of the entire place as soon as you arrive and right before you leave. Hopefully no one is scammed again!

We reserved Waterscape B200 through Avari for Father’s Day weekend. Nine days before our scheduled arrival, Avari canceled our confirmed reservation. The reason provided in writing was: “We are sorry to inform you that the vacation home you booked for your trip, Waterscape B200, will no longer be available due to the rate the guest booked the unit at is less than what the owner’s set rate is. Since there is not another property that fits your dates, we will cancel the reservation and process a full refund to the payment on file so that you can explore other alternatives.” After receiving this notice, I spoke with multiple Avari representatives. One representative searched Avari’s inventory for alternative accommodations and identified only one available property for that weekend. During that conversation, it was acknowledged that the alternative property was not comparable to our original reservation. Because our trip was only nine days away during one of the busiest weekends of the year, we had to secure comparable accommodations ourselves at an additional cost of $713.30. Although Avari ultimately refunded our reservation, they declined any reimbursement or goodwill accommodation for the additional costs their cancellation caused. Their position was that the refund satisfied their obligations under their policies. When I requested the policy governing cancellations and substitutions, Avari cited Section 11 of its Terms and Conditions, which states that substitutions may be necessary due to ownership changes, properties being removed from rental use, or extensive repairs or maintenance. The policy also discusses providing a comparable property when available. Based on the explanation originally provided to us, our reservation was canceled because the owner did not wish to honor the confirmed rental rate. That reason does not appear among the circumstances specifically described in Section 11. Travelers considering Avari should understand that a confirmed reservation may still be canceled shortly before arrival, potentially requiring them to secure replacement accommodations at significantly higher market rates. I hope Avari revisits its policies and owner accountability standards to better protect guests when confirmed reservations are canceled.