Fantastic home

Guest: Rich (Grafton VA)
Date of Stay: 05/27/11 Review Submitted: 06/12/11

Hi Gaye & Paul, Rich and I would like to thank you. We stayed at the Cardinal house from 5/27 to 6/3. It was more than we expected. The house was beautifully decorated (tropical) my kind of thing, and very accomodating. You guys left no stone unturned. The pool was awesome! Just what we needed at the end of the day. My family thouroughly enjoyed everything and so did we. However, there were 2 bottles of wine on the kitchen; we weren't sure if they were for us, so we didn't drink them. We would have!!!! The house is absolutely adorable, we will stay there again. It was almost like being at home. We will spread the word and, perhaps, stay there again this summer. Location as to where we had to be was no more than 20 min away. Thank you so very much for making our family reunion, my Aunts 100th birthday, a great experience. We did make sure the house was clean, swept, and wiped down, beds made (not sure if we were supposed to strip them) and did try to skim the pool after the rain storm on Thurs. We did leave some items that we could not take home w/us. Hope you don't mind. It was better to leave them for the clean up crew than pitch them. I would appreciate it if you would shred my deposit check and let me know when you do. Again, thank you for such a lovely house and we will absolutely stay with you again..... Carol/Rich and the entire Holloway Family VA

Recommended for:Romantic getaway, tourists without a car, sightseeing, girls getaway, age 55+, families with young children, families with teenagers.

Great time

Guest: tom (Waterbury CT)
Date of Stay: 04/15/11 Review Submitted: 04/25/11

My guests had a great time staying in the Hummingbird. They are already talking about booking two weeks in one of your larger houses. They will be contacting you once they see the school schedule. Wonderful home, great pool area, great location Thanks

Recommended for:Romantic getaway, tourists without a car, sightseeing, girls getaway, age 55+, families with young children, families with teenagers.

Awesome stay

Guest: dan (Salem IL)
Date of Stay: 04/16/11 Review Submitted: 04/25/11

Had an awesome vacation! Great house with lots of space for all of us 8 persons ! Wonderful pool area and loved the upper level sun deck Danette bolton

Recommended for:Romantic getaway, tourists without a car, sightseeing, girls getaway, age 55+, families with young children, families with teenagers.

Would Recommend to Everybody

Guest: peg (Boston)
Date of Stay: 03/12/11 Review Submitted: 03/31/11

Had bad renting experiences in the past, so really got into the " review thing " This home had nearly 40 reviews which intriged me, as people normally only write when things are wrong. We choose this house as out of 40 reviews, 38 were positive, speaks for itself here and the reviews were so consistant The owners were really helpful and gave us some great ideas for places to visit that we would have never found ourselves. Local dining and delis we could walk to. Beaches were delightful. ( owners even had pull along cooler for the beach, neat ! ) we did find some local tennis courts that were free and the local YMCA which is in the next street, give weekly membership or honor your own.Free babysitting there I will certainly be back to this home or one of the owners others Peggy Parsons

Recommended for:Romantic getaway, tourists without a car, sightseeing, girls getaway, age 55+, families with young children, families with teenagers.

Cardinals--Palm Harbor

Guest: Barb (VA)
Date of Stay: 12/31/10 Review Submitted: 03/02/11

This property shows well on line, but is in need of repairs and updating. After submitting our rental fees, we were informed that an additional weekly fee would be required if we wished to have the pool heater activated . I was looking forward to a warm and wondreful Palm Harbor stay from New Year's Eve until Jan. 29th, but my expectations, unfortunately, were not met.

Owner response:This home is being constantly maintained and upgraded. Most of our guests say it’s even more beautiful than our site shows it. ( see what other guests have written ) No, we don’t have granite countertops and marble floors and yes, a lamp does go out sometimes the day after folk come in. Our Booking form clearly asks if the renter wants to have pool heating and its cost. This was not ticked for by this party. What we did notice was that the form was completed and signed for a party of 3 ( and we charged on that basis ) and then at least 5 adults stayed at our home during the full duration. Last week another member of this party contacted us to say what a great time he had at our home. This review makes no sense to us, and no help to anybody else.

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LOVED this home

Guest: Sam (N.J)
Date of Stay: 12/17/10 Review Submitted: 01/09/11

We have stayed in many homes over the years and this is the nicest we have stayed in.The owners have put so much thought into all the little exta things that take this home out of the normal rental home bracket.We were a family of 3 generations and we all enjoyed different things. I loved sitting and reading on the sun deck, you are up among the branches of the oak trees, its so relaxing. My Mom ( who is 81) liked just sitting in the yard and watch the kids play or watching that huge T.V for hours ! My Husband who loves Golf, enjoyed playing several courses all close by, he really liked Brooker Creek course, as they had a sports bar in the club house. We paid for pool heating which at first i though expensive, but the pool got to over 80 degrees. so must have an excellent heating system, as some days were rather cool outside for Florida. The two things you must do if you come here are . 1) Go on the kayak trip on St Josephs sound, just a short walk from the house, it was the best day for us all ( even my Mom went ) we went all along the little inlets on the Gulf and through the mangroves we saw a group of little stingrays swim with us, it was great. 2) Hire cycles, we wanted to walk to so many places but did not have the time and there is a cycle trail that goes all along the coast that we did not go on. Hope this has helped somebody The Sampson family N.J

Recommended for:Romantic getaway, tourists without a car, sightseeing, age 55+, families with young children, families with teenagers.

Just had to write a review

Guest: dawn (sedona az usa)
Date of Stay: 10/17/10 Review Submitted: 10/28/10

My wife is a clean freak and this home was spotless,well maintained and had everything my family could have wanted and more. The pool area was like a tropical oasis, Fantastic I enjoyed being able to walk places, made such a change from other Florida vacation places we have been to. Try Peggy O'Neils Irish pub, magic! Will book again next year and highly recommend

Recommended for:Romantic getaway, tourists without a car, sightseeing, girls getaway, age 55+, families with young children, families with teenagers.

NOT HAPPY

Guest: Bryan (Livonia, MI)
Date of Stay: 10/02/10 Review Submitted: 10/20/10

We stayed here from 10/2 - 10/9/2010. I have rented many homes in this area for the last 10 years and this is the first one I have rented from Paul and Gaye. When I first arrived I found out I couldn't adjust the temperature in the house, which made it difficult to sleep at night. The pool was dirty, so I called and was assured it would clear up on its own. It didn't. The water never got warm enough to swim in (no option to hear it), so I didn't call back. The HOT tub was set to 93 degrees and is only on from noon to 4pm and the jets didn't even work. The screening has debris all over it and is torn in a couple of places. The next morning I went to cook breakfast and there was no fry pan. I bought one and left it behind for the next guests. There was no extra t.p. in the bathroom off the kitchen. And one extra roll the master bathroom which was needed in that bathroom. With the amount of money I spent on this house, I was not happy at all. I will not rent from this couple again.

Owner response:Unfortunately an owner can never please everybody and some folks are never happy. After 20 years of renting our homes, with over 30 positive responses on this home and only 1 negative, we feel happy with what we offer. The A/C was set at 74 degrees for the evening and 76 degrees for the day; and with outside temperatures not high (they were only in the 60's at night) we can't believe anybody would have any trouble sleeping. The pool was professionally cleaned that morning, but the yard man had blown the outside decks down after then and a slight bit of dust went into the water. It was not dirty. We were never asked for pool heating, which was available, and the renters asked for the hot tub to be set at 93 degrees themselves! The hot tub jets are working fine and the hot tub stays hot all day (although set to heat for 4 hours ). The screening did have a few leaves on; we have trees! There are three (3) frying pans available - we do not understand why they could not be found. Five (5) rolls of toilet paper for 2 people for 7 nights is ample. For the discounted weekly rate we gave, it worked out about the same price for them as one 4 star hotel room and what we gave was a Beautiful 4 Star Pool / Hot tub home in a great location. We are so pleased that 99.9% of renters appreciate our homes.

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Great Escape From my everyday life.

Guest: Crystal (Park Ridge, IL)
Date of Stay: 08/01/10 Review Submitted: 08/30/10

Mr & Mrs Vogel, I want to thank you for the wonderful time we had at the Cardinals home in Palm harbor. We stayed at the beginning of August and it was a great ending to a stressful summer. The house was beautiful, Clean and exactly like the pictures showed. The kids had a blast while I just relaxed by the pool. You were right .....the beaches were great and Honeymoon Island was Close by and the Kids loved the Ferry to the other little Island. I will tell all friends and family if they visit FL to visit your home, we will be back next summer.

Recommended for:Romantic getaway, girls getaway, age 55+, families with young children, families with teenagers.

Cardinal Review

Guest: Heather (St. Pete, FL)
Date of Stay: 08/12/10 Review Submitted: 08/29/10

The owners of the home were so helpful. Very quick response time. Would rent from again!

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