We arrived in the evening and immediately found the air conditioner was not working--we also discovered an ant infestation in the kitchen. We were told by management that no repair could be done until the next day--needless to say our first night was not comfortable at all. Ultimately, when the repairman came we saw a filter on the A/C unit that appeared to have never been cleaned or replaced. We spent the next morning and the early part of the afternoon waiting for the repair to be complete so that we could leave the condo and enjoy the beach. That same morning a pest control tech came and removed the ants--no big deal.There was never a suggestion that something would be offered to us to recompense the loss of enjoyment we experienced our first evening and morning we were there.
DRAPES: At the back of the unit heavy drapes are hung by flimsy, plastic clips on curtain rods. These drapes must be opened to enjoy the view that is the whole point of this type of rental. Moving the drapes, even just a little bit, would cause the clips, and thus the drapes, to fall off of the curtain rod--this was an enormous inconvenience and discouraged opening or closing the drapes at all and greatly diminished our enjoyment of the view from this oceanfront unit.
DOOR HANDLES: the door handles on several doors were visibly loose upon our arrival--we fixed them ourselves to the best of our ability.
THE SLIDING GLASS DOOR: the back porch, pool, and beach are accessed through a sliding glass door at the rear of the unit. It is EXTREMELY hard to slide open or closed. I can't emphasize this enough--and this is no exaggeration--it took a considerable amount of strength and the use of one's body weight to get the thing open or closed. Since going to the beach or the pool is the main reason for being there--this issue presented itself numerous times, ALL DAY, EVERY DAY.
TILE: a piece of tile literally popped off of the wall in one of the bathrooms. I was told that a renovation had recently been done so my suspicion is that whoever placed the tile did not do so correctly.
KEYS: even more so than the A/C, the ants, the drapes, or the door handles, the most annoying thing about staying at this unit was the use of keys to access every part of the facility. We were provided with two types of keys: one for accessing the common areas of the facility, and one for accessing our unit. Doesn't sound too bad, right? Well, if one wants to go to the pool, one must remember to bring their key AND keep track of it. Want to go to the beach? You must bring your key with you to access the boardwalk and to re-enter the facility. Sounds like a small thing but it is incredibly inconvenient and annoying after enjoying keypad access at other facilities for years. The front door to the facility was in various states of damage or disrepair during our stay from what appeared to be damage from irate vacationers trying to get to their condos--my hope is that the owner's association for this place will modernize and provide keypad access to the common areas--it would be an ENORMOUS improvement to the experience.
LET'S END ON A GOOD NOTE: Location, location, location. This unit is in Bethune Beach--the "no-drive" portion of New Smyrna Beach. It is ground-floor, and ocean front. It is walking distance to JB's Fish Camp which offers great food, fishing charters, kayak rentals and more. The unit itself, once cooled down properly and ridden of pests is well-appointed and very pretty. With properly functioning window treatments as well as properly functioning and easily accessible doors the fabulous location and views would make this unit worth recommending.