This review pertains to the property "Dune Life," located at 214 Ocean Blvd East, Holden Beach, NC. Lesson learned - if you see an exterminator at your vacation rental at check-in time you should go the other way! We arrived at Dune Life at our 4pm check-in time to find an exterminator truck parked in the driveway. We were immediately concerned to see this, so my husband inquired with the gentleman on site to find out what was going on. He stated that they were there for routine spraying and it was completely safe for us and our pets. We took him at his word but thought it was rather odd that a rental company would allow an exterminator to come at the same time guests are about to check-in... unless of course they were aware of a problem. The home itself was lovely - recently updated, very spacious, and appeared clean on the surface. However, there was one major issue - ROACHES!! After our group unloaded and settled in for the week, including unpacking our nearly $500 grocery order, we started to notice these disgusting pests surfacing throughout the evening. Roaches were found crawling on the counters, cabinets, walls, floors, and even on the sofa! I've attached a few pictures showing what we experienced. We also found ants crawling on the counters, but we know this is a more common problem that we could have tolerated. Once we realized there was likely a roach infestation in the home, we contacted Proactive Vacations early Sunday morning via the afterhours emergency email and phone number. They were quick to respond to our call. We worked with one of their property coordinators who was very professional and did her best to handle the situation by relocating us to another available home. The two options they offered us were not the best. The home we ultimately went with (the better of the two) was not comparable to the home we rented (e.g. Duplex versus house; 1 master bedroom versus 3, etc.), and the condition of the property was fair at best. We did not report all the issues we found with the replacement home because why bother - there were no alternative pet-friendly, oceanfront homes available. As such, we settled for the sake of being able to continue our vacation without further disruption. We had driven 6 hours with two dogs and knew our last-minute options were likely limited. At least the replacement home did not have roaches. The whole ordeal of having to pack up and relocate to another home was extremely disruptive to our vacation and really left us feeling stressed, frustrated, and misled about the pest situation in the home we rented. Proactive Vacations did credit my credit card for the difference in price of the rentals (as they should have!) since the replacement home was smaller and less expensive than the home we rented. However, they never responded to my request for a partial refund, nor did they offer any compensation for the inconvenience and wasted time we experienced having to move to another property. Instead, they made sure to charge us for the one night we stayed in the roach infested home. A top-notch rental company who cares about their guests would have offered compensation without question. We are honest people who just wanted to enjoy a vacation that was interrupted due to no fault of our own. We were the only ones inconvenienced by this situation, yet we are stuck paying full price for a vacation rental that we didn't choose and was less than ideal for our needs. Despite this unfortunate experience with Proactive Vacations, we still love Holden Beach and will return again in the future. Next time, we won't be using this rental company. read more

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zero!I cannot say one good thing about the house or Proactive. the house 557 Ocean Blvd. West was in an appalling state of cleanliness with so much black mold on shower heads that it obstructed water flow. The amount of gook in the filters and water arms of the dishwasher would be considered a health hazard! Had a ceiling leak that drenched a lower floor mattress and clothing and no on would come out and service the issue that night so people had to sleep on couches. A pocket door on the stairway was sooo filthy with built up dirt and mold because somehow the property manager was unaware the door even existed he also didn't know that dishwashers have filters to be cleaned!!!! the house is misrepresented in the photos being new and pristine and furniture was different. The customer service was non existent and rude when they did contact and wanted to blame my family for the leak which was actually caused by the cleaning crew that had to come back and ran the water in the shower. The mattresses are extremely cheap noisy and uncomfortable. My family has vacationed on Holden Beach for 32 years, had always used Hobbs or Alan Holden realty, they are tried and true and never had such maintenance issues EVER! If the home owner is already aware of these issues they should be embarrassed if they aren't someone should make them aware. so i'm sure it's obvious I will never use Proactive again and you shouldn't either! look at other reviews! read more

This review pertains to a specific rental property - Jolly Rogers III at 143 OBW. We had numerous issues with this house and the rental/management team was made aware. The house was not clean, in fact it was dirty. Of particular need on the main level was the kitchen. The cabinets were sticking, the drawers were all off the runners and would not shut. And the pots and pans and dishes in the cabinets were dirty as well. Everything had to be washed before using. The inside of the house needs major updating - cabinets stick, peeling wall paper, half painted walls (painted around the headboard on the bed), bath tub stoppers not working, loose railings on the porches and decks. While the replaced decking was nice, the sides of the porches were dangerous and ready to fall off. The ground level, with three bedrooms that we were planning to use was unusable due to mold and mildew. Even after the housekeeper came in and cleaned on Monday, the pediatricians advised us not to allow the kids to sleep in the area as bleach had to be used to kill the mold. We therefore had to have 14 people, ages 74 years old to 1 year old, using 4 bedrooms (in a house rented because it had 7 bedrooms!) and my older grandchildren had to sleep on the couches in the living room for the week. The HVAC presented issues that were addressed but due to the old age of the system, the house was very warm in the afternoon. There was an issue with a propane gas tank leak that was handled quickly by the fire department and the police. Fortunately, this did not impact the hot water heater as we were initially told. And I have read the reviews from when this property was with VRBO - these same issues were noted in 2022. . . not new issues. I will say, if the house was clean and updated inside, this would be an awesome rental. The location is terrific, central to the heart of the island. It is just very unfortunate that it wasn't ready for my family. I would NOT recommend this rental to anyone! Stay away from Jolly Roger III! Date of stay: July 22 to July 29, 2023 Date of post: August 1, 2023 read more

Terrible experience dealing with Proactive vacations. Never again, my experience with this rental is honestly the worst I have ever had. Very unprofessional company . Once they have your money ....say goodbye read more

We have been coming to Holden Beach for over 50 years and rented many houses over the years. We stayed at a house in the gated east end of the island the week of May 22-29. While the house is a beautiful house in a beautiful location, this house was in no condition to be rented out. When we got there we noticed mouse poop EVERYWHERE! We immediately called Proactive and they sent someone from their maintenance team over to set up mouse traps. In addition to the mouse infestation, it was apparent that the house was not cleaned very well before our arrival. While the maintenance person was there he removed an ant-covered pile of bacon from the deck and checked out where the deck was broken and detaching from the house. He apologized to us very nicely on the behalf of Proactive for the condition of the house and stated that it was embarrassing that the house was in that condition. He is a true asset to the Proactive team! Between the mouse infestation, the broken decking (safety issue!), the broken furniture, broken laundry room door, the very poor cleaning job done inside the house as well as the mess outside around the decks and pool (piles of bacon, cigarette butts, and trash), rusty nails sticking up all over the decks, the showers that wouldn't drain, the fact the pool was never cleaned before our stay, the unusable trundle mattress, exterior light dangling from it's wires, and many other items, it was very apparent to us that this house was minimally cleaned and maintained. We spent the first two days fixing items and cleaning just to make the house livable, as there was no one available to manage our complaints over the weekend. We called Monday morning first thing to speak to a manager at Proactive. He said he would do everything he could to remedy our situation. They did send over their top maintenance person as well as an exterminator and a house keeper. Also, another person came and took pictures of everything including more mouse poop, as the first set of traps had not been successful. An infestation like that can't be removed quickly. Our daughter who brought her 7 month old baby was never able to relax with a crawling baby in the house. A mouse ate part of her son's pacifier while he slept! Thank goodness it was not in his mouth, but it was near by. You could actually hear the mice in the walls of the downstairs bathrooms and smell their urine in the closets. Some of the nails were hammered into the decks but most were not and you had to be extremely careful while walking on the decks, even with flip flops on. The shower drains were cleaned out so they drained better, but not completely. We were promised a new mattress for the trundle bed, but that never happened. No one followed up with us to make sure everything was resolved and to see if the mouse problem was getting better. I sent an email to Proactive when we got back home and let the manager know that we were very disappointed in our experience and did not think our vacation was worth the money we spent. He said that someone did come out to check our status on Thursday of our weekly rental, but no-one in our group saw him nor spoke with him. He also seemed to suggest that things were not as bad as we said. His own people saw the proof, so I have not idea why he thought we were being dishonest. He spoke to the owner and they gave us a 15% refund. When you spend over $5000 for a week on a vacation house, you do not expect any major issues to contend with. My family feels we should have gotten a full refund, but honestly 15% is a bit insulting for what we experienced at our rental. I expressed my dissatisfaction with Proactive's/the owner's response but we have heard nothing back from them. I have never written a negative review for anything, but our experience warrants one. In all of our 50 years of going to Holden Beach, we never have had such a disappointing rental. While it seemed Proactive was trying to do the right thing to start with, they fell short in the end. I will not be using them for rentals in the future. read more

Awesome customer service! Allisan was very helpful and responded within minutes! Booking was very easy and I was provided with many options. If you are visiting Holden Beach, I highly recommend going through Proactive Vacations! read more

Horrendous cancellation policy. Currently in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and are being refused a refund for our cancellation. Property managers are very dismissive of concerns. Renter beware. read more