2026 Gibson Family Beach Vacation! Was amazing due to Beach Club! By far my favorite place to stay!read more

Complete lack of maintenance throughout the facility. 1st day our AC breaks, 2nd day they had to…read moreclose pool due to water quality (still closed after 5 days) and by the 4th day we had brown muddy water coming from the faucets.We were offered to use bathroom in a different room to bath our children as long as we kept it clean. Multiple walkway lights broken. Some with exposed wiring! Too many other options on the beach to consider ever staying here again. We are completely disappointed in all aspects of this place. They charge a premium but delivery and economy experience. Truly the worst vacation experience my family has ever had

*Review from stay 4/23/25 - 4/27/25*…read more We had a really nice stay at Emerald Dolphin! The location is great because you're close to the restaurants and shopping without being right in the action. We had an awesome view of the beach and the pool area from our 5th floor balcony. Though we didn't go down, it seemed like a really nice and clean area. I did see a staff member go and reset the chairs in the area and clean every morning before 8 AM when it opened. I like that when you stay here you get access to both the pool and fitness center. Our unit was pretty clean. There were a few things we didn't love but that's more about the property management company that maintained our rental than it was the actual condo itself. The only downside (though it didn't bother us) is that this is supposed to be a more secure property with a gated parking lot. The gate wasn't working and stayed wide open throughout our entire stay. It's very easy for anyone to just walk off the street and come up to your floor. There are no security measures in place, so if that's really important to you then definitely keep this in mind. Otherwise, the property was great and I would absolutely stay here again!

My Family & I were so looking forward to staying at the Emerald Dolphin, Again! We dropped Three…read moreGrand only to be majorly disappointed in the owners of this filthy place! We stayed on the tenth floor back in 2016, and it was a FIVE STAR experience to say the least. This time we stayed in 620, and let me tell you, that if we could give NEGATIVE FIVE STARS (-5), we absolutely Would! Our experience was Terrible starting the minute we arrived inside the apartment. 1. The walk in closet between our bedroom & the bathroom reeked with the smell of urine which was a definite indication that the place had Not been cleaned at all. I use to work in hotels, & it smelled as though some drunk fool had relieved himself Right there! Oh wait, this was just the beginning of our horrible stay in Emerald Dolphin 620! We sacrificed & saved all year for this?!? I'm writing this in hopes that no one else has to experience this dump. 2. Second of All. the pictures were not accurate. This is not the updated look. It's extremely disappointing when some owners will deliberately mislead future vacationers to get their money at any &all costs. 3. They didn't bother to clean the Unit at all! We immediately brought this to the owners attention, only to have them make us empty promises that they would grant us a FULL REFUND because of the condition of the Unit was such sub par! They lied to us & began ignoring our emails. My precious family & I sacrificed all year long saving up, working overtime & everything looking forward to the previous experience years ago on the tenth floor! We dropped THREE GRAND $3,000.00 on this disappointing dump. 4. When it was time to go to bed, we felt several sand granules all in the bed only to confirm they hadn't even changed the sheets from the previous guests. And NO we had not been to the sand yet... 5. One of the twin beds were completely broken and in a closet. The King mattress was so worn out my wife had to go to the chiropractor. We were told that the maintenance man would need in the unit on Wednesday, & they would compensate us for our time. We rearranged our day and cancelled a trip to Destin for this because he was an hour and a half late. After all of this, he never even put the bed back together. I have been praying for over a year that God would allow me to take my Wife to see the ocean at least one more time, so He granted that desire. We chose this place assuming it would be stellar simply because we stayed at the Emerald Dolphin before, & the reviews were great. Needless to say this Unit (Not Emerald Dolphin) was extremely Misrepresented & We're requesting a Full Refund. We stayed from June 19-26.

BED Bugs in 806!!!! We had a terrible experience with Southern Vacation Rentals as well. The condo…read moreappeared clean until bed checks. Southern Vacation rentals left us without a place to stay. They could care less that if I hadn't checked we would have taken bed bugs home. I'm still having nightmare!!! All our blankets and beach bags were trashed. We had to pay for a hotel that night. The only solution almost 24 hours later after numerous calls to them was either a refund or put us in a much less rental than we booked months ago. It looked shady! They could have cared less we were 14 hours from home Without a place to stay. We ended up staying in a hotel paying way more for last minute hotel rental.

We have stayed at Emerald Isle twice. I believe the first time was in unit 604 and it was great…read more The second time was in unit 1201 and it was through a rental agency called Southern Vacation Rentals. We were severely disappointed in 1201 because of Southern Vacation Rentals. We stayed here May of 2025. The review I left on their website, which they did not post, reads as follows: The advertisement of this property was misleading. There was a disclaimer on the booking page about construction and repairs going on at Emerald Isle, but it was unknown the unit we booked would be directly affected. This was not made known to us until the day of arrival via the texting platform. There was no mention of it in any prior emails when booking or notice of check in. Our balcony was completely unusable during the day Monday through Saturday 8am-5pm. Workers blocked our ability to go out on the balcony because they would put a wood stick in the door to jam it from the outside. The balcony railing (which is glass) was tarped off with a material you could not see through. There was no view of the beach when sitting in the chairs on the balcony for the entire duration of our stay. The only way to see the beach was to be standing by the railing itself. Furthermore, I was getting changed into my bathing suit when the workers made it up to our unit on the scaffolding and I had to duck because I was naked. There was no privacy in the master bedroom or main living area. In the master, I could close the curtains for privacy, but again that blocked any view of the ocean/beach that we had. There was no way to create privacy when in the living room because workers were right outside the windows and balcony that could not be closed off. Southern Vacation Rentals did nothing to make our trip more pleasant due to the poor disclosure and disruptions. It is sad we were not made aware, and Southern chose to do nothing to make it right. I would recommend others not stay here until repairs are done or until the booking person is aware of what they truly are getting. Southern acted slyly and unconcerned with the quality of our stay.

We booked this vacation rental at Portside Villa in Pensacola specifically for beach access, only…read moreto discover after arrival that the beach was closed and inaccessible. At no point before check-in did the property management agency disclose this major issue, despite clearly knowing it would significantly impact guests' stay. This felt extremely misleading. Beach access was a primary reason we chose this property, and had we known the beach was closed, we would have booked elsewhere. Instead, we spent our vacation dealing with disappointment, inconvenience, and wasted money. What made the experience worse was the agency's lack of transparency and poor communication. A closure of this magnitude should absolutely be disclosed prominently before booking -- not left for guests to discover after they arrive. The property itself may have been acceptable, but withholding critical information about the closed beach completely overshadowed the experience. I would not book through this agency again and would caution future travelers to ask detailed questions before reserving. We were never offered to be moved to any other properties . We were told a manager had left for the day and someone would call and get back to us.We found a wonderful place in Navarre Beach is where we will be going from now on. We had a wonderful time inspire of all the delays and trouble but we did miss out of 2 days on the beach .

The house was Ok. the problem is we can't use the beach. too many people directly in front of house…read morewith beach chairs, umbrellas all set up for the day. the house is located next to the public beach access. We couldn't use the beach. Not at all worth what they charge for renting the house. of course they do not mention that in the vrbo add for the house. Renters beware. 1304 Ariola drve.

Great location, comfy beds and helpful staff. We stayed in unit #904 for one week, and enjoyed our…read morestay immensely. Our only complaints were the extremely dirty, sandy floor and parking. After a few minutes of going barefoot on the tile floor, the soles of our feet were black which we didn't notice until my husband's heel left a black impression on the white bedspread. (Yuk!) So we wore our flip flops from the moment we stepped out of the shower until we crawled into bed at night. Also, we were allowed two parking spaces when we booked, but in the middle of our stay they reduced it to one and stated we could pay for additional parking outside the gate!

We stayed at Regency Towers #506 East. The property was beautifully decorated and well maintained…read more Everything looked exactly like the pictures. The oceanfront view from the balcony was awesome for morning coffee or an evening glass of wine. Easy access to beach and pool. The Southern Team took really good care of us during our stay. Communication was excellent! From the time we booked until the time we checked out. I had a few questions prior to our stay and they answered all of my question promptly and courteously. They kept us updated on everything that was going on in our building during our stay. In addition our WiFi went out late one night and I reached out to management and they responded and walked us through steps to help resolve the issue. They took really good care of us during our stay. Looking forward to staying here again!!

Southern Vacation Rentals listed a condo on HomeToGo as being I. the heart of Panama City Beach, it…read morealso listed it as having beach access. After entering into agreement, within 5 minutes of being provided the address, I mapped it and it was a 35 minute drive from Panama City Beach and did not have beach access to any other beach, this property had lagoon access, not beach access. They refused to allow me to transfer my reservation to a beach access property and pay the difference, but they offered to book me a beach property at full price and I would lose the money I already paid for the one that was falsely advertised.

We stayed at the Palm Beach Club for one week. The condo was spacious, clean and had a great pool…read morethat was never overcrowded. The condo is close to everything we wanted to do including Dolphin Cruising and Fort Pickens Tour. The food was great and was within 5-10 minutes of our condo. I would highly recommend Southern Vacation Rentals for your stay in Pensacola.

Ended up spending a very cold and windy night here, so some of the amenities weren't really worth…read moreit, but I can tell you that it's a place that I would definitely want to come back to. 1. Service - everyone from check in to check out was so professional and courteous that they made me feel right at home. 2. Amenities - right on the beach, swimming, lazy river, hot tubs, all great! (But, again, it was too cold to enjoy much but the hot tub. Still worth it.) 3. The room - clean and comfortable with a balcony overlooking the Gulf. Plus, after a week on a cruise ship, it felt like the biggest room in the world! (It was standard hotel size for two queens, but still felt ginormous.) 4. Great bathroom and supplies. My only real drawback was the water pressure. On the 7th floor, the shower took quite a bit longer than usual to get all the shampoo out. 5. Location - not only on the beach, but within walking distance to great restaurants, bars, and fun. Loved it all around. I love Pensacola Beach, and this definitely gives you the vibe they're going for.

This place is OK for a few reasons, and not worth your time for several other reasons! It has its…read moreown lazy river pool...but it's slow. Which is why they call it lazy. The property is clean but not impressive. The lobby restaurant is REALLY not worth your time. If H. & R. Block opened a restaurant, this would be the place! The workers use the elevators as if they owned the place. They'll get in the elevator and regardless of how many people are already on board, they'll push right past you and take charge of YOUR ride down to the lobby! I was most upset when I found out that was a MARRIOTT right next door and I could have used the points.

Let me start with the bad. We checked in at about 1300 on Thursday 23 Apr 2026. The young woman…read morechecking us in clearly didn't want to be there and clearly didn't want to give the same welcome speech she had given many times before. She was blazing through whatever she said quietly and at about the same speed as the side effects warning on a TV commercial for prescription meds. I asked her to slow down because my hearing isn't great and she was talking way too fast. She , literally, rolled her eyes and continued to the end of her speech at which time I had a room key and a pink square of paper with numbers on it that I had no idea was for. Not a great first impression. Fortunately this was a one off experience and the remainder of our stay was perfect. The resort is beautiful. The pool area was great. Our room was generously sized and very well appointed. (I still recommend all nice hotels stop buying those packets for the coffee maker with powdered creamer and that horrible pink stuff for sweetener. You're better than that.) The staff, no matter who or where we bumped into them, was friendly, engaging, and helpful. Housekeeping, maintenance, lobby, bars, food service. 100% awesome. The food and drinks in the lobby bar were amazing. We ate there several times because we couldn't think of a good reason to go anywhere else and fight the crowds and traffic for lesser food. We really enjoyed our stay and would certainly stay again.

Upon arrival the room was dirty. The light shade was ripped. The shower and fridge were disgusting…read more I called the desk no one ever came. They cleaned only once, the day before we left for home. July 29- August 4th. I requested cleaning since the second we got there. I went last year it was wonderful this time not so much. We won't stay again.

I stayed for a week in February 2026 to set up a reunion for the USS Dahlgren Association. Our…read morestay was amazing. We are a group of old salty sailors and family that meet yearly. Jessie provided us the opportunity to utilize the lobby area during our reunion to view the blue angels practice in July. Our July 16, 2026 visit was spectacular. We had a group of 65 people enjoying the air show. Everyone in our group raved about the hospitality and the view. Jessie, a big thank you from everyone in our group. Loved it

We stayed here right after Memorial Day. The 1st night, 2 of the 3 elevators were not working…read more 10-15 minute waits for elevators with people packed in like sardines. Up & down 11 floors, it was terrible. BUT, they fixed one of them the next day, so we were grateful for that. Lots of families & children. The pool area was awesome, with 2 hot tubs, 2 pools, lazy river, hammock area, 2 fire pits, music playing, and a bar/resaturant that overlooks the beach. Walking on the beach at night was amazing, and having a hotel where the area stays open after dark was an awesome vibe. Breakfast was included, and it varied each day. It was delicious; very busy in the mornings. Hotel is within walking distance to shops, restaurants, the pier, ice cream, bars, etc. Room was very clean and had a beautiful balcony view. My only complaint about the room was super flat down pillows. Like pancakes. We had to request 2 extra pillows. Would definitely stay again!