4/10 Poor
Kristina M.
9 April 2023
Liked: Cleanliness, check-in, communication, location
Good resort, but read this before booking
I would rate the resort a 5, the room a 3, and the mgmt company this is through - a 2. Destin is great!
The room is on the 1st floor corner of the Pelican Beach Resort. 30 seconds walk to the beach, 10 seconds to the pool. I was nervous about safety, but the resort has a security guard at the entrance checking out each car and each guest had to wear a colored wristband at all times (or they would be escorted off the premises).
However, right outside your front door is an outdoor stairwell and the garbage pickup area. This has a huge dumpster out front and a garage door that they open and shut. This is right outside the main bedroom window, so unless you have a fan to block out noise (like we did), I would not recommend it.
The convenience of getting to the beach and the pool from this room is a huge plus. However, this doesn't have privacy on the back balcony because it's slightly above the pool area. From the back balcony you can see the beach area but the water is somewhat blocked from the sand bank. (Pool towels are also not provided, so bring some!)
When we entered the room, it had a strong cleaning smell. Overall the room appeared clean, although we found a hair on the main bed (not changed?) and the bathroom cabinet has chipping wood. The bunk bed is in the wall of the main hallway when you walk in. There is a sofa bed that is really not comfortable.
Customer service available via phone/chat.
Now to the issues...Maintenance and checkout...
We checked in late on a Saturday. Sunday morning we noticed the TV in the living room didn't work, the step trash can was broken, and there was a bulb burnt out. We chatted with Panhandle Getaways and they put in a work order (this was around 8:30am). All day, nothing fixed. Called Monday - CSR said they submitted the work order to the resort for them to fix it and should be done in the afternoon or day. Nothing all day. Called the resort directly that evening - no work order had been submitted!?! Texted CSR Monday night and Tuesday morning - they "reentered" work order saying it was urgent. We checked out Wednesday - nothing fixed.
Checkout time is 10am (resort is 11am?!) and our door code to our room stopped working BEFORE 10!! If we didn't have someone still in the room, we would have been locked out while loading the car!
My advice - book through Pelican Beach directly. We would have but they were booked up, the rooms are also less expensive, and the maintenance is through them anyway.
Kristina M.
Stayed 4 nights in Apr 2023
