Caribbean Beachfront House Surrounded by Nature, Private, Updates on Aug 2016

We had an awesome time. The place is a little dated and the furniture doesn't match the pictures. However the location and views make up for anything that was lacking. It was rather odd to have a couple parties in your backyard but by 10 pm the noise was gone. From what I expected I thought the area behind the house belonged with the house, it did not and it is used as a local partying spot. It really did NOT take away from the beauty of the property. I rent several houses a year on VRBO/Homeway, each place has pros and cons. Thanks for sharing your home with my family.

This house has strong potential but doesn't meet expectations in it's current state.

There is some basic maintenance that could be performed that would get the house up to a better level to meet expectations but currently isn't there.

1. House

-Half of the windows in the main room were broken and would not turn without extensive effort.

-The others did not have screens at all.

-One bedroom had no window covering on the window. We found a set of blinds in a closet and were able to duct tape them up to make them work.

-The closet doors were broken and falling down each time they were knocked or if we attempted to open them.

-The sheets did not stay on the bed, as the elastic was worn out.

-There were no matching pots and lids, so when we cooked we had to use a large lid for a small pot.

2. Beach

-Lots of seaweed. Chokes the area for swimming. Not a fun beach for the kids. Great walking beach.

3. The lack of air conditioning in the main room was problematic, especially given the lack of screens on one entire set of windows and the lack of a screen door. With Zika, this is especially problematic.

4. Cleanliness.

There were grains of sand on the beds when we arrived. There were balls of dust in the closets. The shower had a pile of sand in the floor. Many of the dishes were in the cabinet and were sticky/dirty.

This has the potential to be a wonderful place to stay. At present, we would not recommend it.

The house was somewhat as advertised. What I didn’t realize was that the 3rd bath can’t be accessed from the main living area. You have to go down the outside steps from the kitchen, around to the other side of the house, and it’s located inside the area where the beach equipment is stored. I don’t think anyone in our party actually used that bath. It also doesn’t have an oven in the kitchen. Otherwise, the beds and bedding were comfortable and the wrap-around porch/balcony was great…we spent most of our time there. The beach was close and we used the supplied kayak which was fun. The wifi went out three times in our 5-day stay including one day when there was no power at all during the daytime hours. Of course, that was out of the owner’s control but it was a pain.

We stayed May 30 - Jun 6th. Upon arrival, we were disappointed to see that the property is not in as good of condition as in the photos. It had been raining & the walkway & back yard were flooded also.

We really enjoyed visiting several nearby attractions: Luquillo beach (nicest), Fajardo beach, El Yunque Rainforest & hiking to the waterfall to swim, old San Juan, eating at local restaurants (el Limon a few blocks from the house & el Makito in Naguabo) & Palmas del Mar.

We had fun & felt very safe walking around the neighborhood and town until the 5th night at the house when someone cut the chain on the back gate to get into the yard, came into the house and stole the TV and some cash from my sister's wallet while we were sleeping (we accidentally left 1 door unlocked that night -- everyday & night prior everything was locked up). We had no issues the 6th night, but the 7th night we went to dinner & came back to the gate on the deck open & saw that someone had been prying on the patio door to try to get it to open. They also stole my husband's shoes off of the porch. We were very uncomfortable that the person came back, so we packed up & went to a guarded hotel nearby to sleep. Jose was very understanding of us wanting to leave & refunded us the cost of the hotel rooms & fees.

Good:

-Beach is right out back with Kayaks & monkey island

-Walking distance to pool

-Nice, large, tiled deck with gate

-2 pack n plays & 1 stroller were available for our use - very nice.

-Friendly neighbors & people in town also

-Plenty of space

Bad:

-beach is not taken care of, so there is a lot of debris & trash & sand fleas

-a river empties in the ocean nearby, so the water here is more brown and murky than other beaches. It had been raining a lot, so this must have made the water more murky.

-A lot of general maintenance needs to be done on the house (two large lights at either end of property do not work (security issue), laminate is peeling off of some cabinets, inside of cabinets dirty, window cranks are not screwed into the walls & some do not work, blinds fell down, etc)

-Scarce hot water & low water pressure

-AC unit in room with twin beds is very loud & spits out water. Property manager came by to fix a few things & it started again after they left.

-There were only 6 towels at the house when we arrived. Property manager brought a few more over a few days later (after we already bought more)

-Took a few days for property manager to show up

What a great beach house and Jose was very nice to work with. He answered all my calls and emails. I would say if I had any complaints it would be that their be several extra rolls of toilet paper be left in the house we only had less than 4 rolls for 4 grown adults and had to buy more other than this it was the perfect home for us while in Puerto Rico. One day our car was dead and the very nice lady across the street took us down the street to borrow battery cables which was very nice of her to go out of her way to help us. The patio on this home was so big we couldn't get over it. Our group of 4 was outside most of the time enjoying the sound of the ocean. We never got to use the kayaks but I am sure they would have been great. We had several afternoons of rain and from what we heard it rained the entire week before we arrived which many the ocean kinda dirty looking so we never swam in front of the house. I would totally recommend this home to anyone coming to Puerto Rico for vacation.