Three star rating (really 3.5) is average of the many 5-star elements with lower rating for cleanliness and mildew in some parts of cottage. Five stars for incredibly beautiful setting and view, pretty, uncluttered decor, closeness to wide beach, clean and awesome outdoor shower, dog friendly layout with latched gate on front deck, quiet and friendly “neighborhood” vibe, responsiveness of Carolina Retreats management staff. Our week here was very happy but the cleanliness and mildew issue was a significant damper. This was an expensive property-the high end price didn’t match the low end cleanliness level. The owner obviously devoted a lot of love and thought to the house; if I were she I’d want to know about some big problem spots like mildew and filth in cabinet under the kitchen sink (including a soaking wet placemat and a jumble of unorganized detergents and clutter with lots of black mildew). One of the back bedrooms was unusable due to overwhelming mildew smell. We kept that door closed; it would have been unhealthy for anyone to sleep in. When we arrived, there were piles of unwashed (?) blankets and linens balled up in the laundry room. Also many drawers and cabinets with miscellaneous, dirty, random objects. Main dresser in front bedroom drawers flop downward when open. Kitchen sink has only a dribble of cold water, otherwise full on hot. As mentioned, management staff was responsive to a couple other problems. It would be a shame not to take care of this gorgeous house and setting. We’d happily stay here again if the mildew issue and cleanliness were fixed, especially if the price were less, but wouldn’t otherwise. Hopefully part of the problem is due to new to rental market and problems will be corrected. Makes me sad that the basic cleanliness and organization of house items isn’t better-seems like a fairly easy fix to make the cottage so much nicer, and it is an especially beautiful property otherwise-I’d love to stay every year if it weren’t for the problems and mismatch of price and reality. (Mildew in the back bedroom is a separate and bigger issue.) Not one roach or bug though! Management came through on their pest spray commitment that I spoke with them about after seeing worrisome May 2021 review. I hope they take care of the house and invest a little time on the problems-it’s pretty special.

Nice location a couple of miles south of the busy center of Surf City. The house itself was quiet, and the beach was uncrowded. This house has a layout that is spacious, but inviting, with great ocean views from the front half of the house. Beds and furniture were comfortable, and my kids especially enjoyed the sturdy bunk bed setup. The decks are amazing, and we spent a ton of time on them. Beach access was right at the end of short walkway connected to the lower deck. Hard to beat 10 seconds from walking out the front door to toes in the sand! Also hard to beat is a dog-friendly beachfront rental, so thanks to the owner for allowing furry friends to tag along. We did have a couple of problems: 1. The dishwasher wasn't working. Didn't affect us too much as we just hand washed, and also ate out quite a few times. 2. Both showers were clogged to a degree that they would start forming a puddle within 20 seconds or so. It was annoying enough that we cleaned up the kids in the outside shower every day, and even the adults bathed outside a few times. On Monday, I messaged the property management/realty team. (They were quite responsive to questions before and during the stay.) They politely apologized and referred the matter to the property services team. So far, so good, but I didn't hear from that team until Wednesday, and they basically thanked me for making them aware of the issues, and told me they'd see how soon they could get them fixed. I assume the issues have been addressed at this point, but it didn't happen during the course of our visit. I wouldn't hesitate to stay at this house again, but can't go with the full 5-star rating for my first visit.

Three star rating (really 3.5) is average of the many 5-star elements with lower rating for cleanliness and mildew in some parts of cottage. Five stars for incredibly beautiful setting and view, pretty, uncluttered decor, closeness to wide beach, clean and awesome outdoor shower, dog friendly layout with latched gate on front deck, quiet and friendly “neighborhood” vibe, responsiveness of Carolina Retreats management staff. Our week here was very happy but the cleanliness and mildew issue was a significant damper. This was an expensive property-the high end price didn’t match the low end cleanliness level. The owner obviously devoted a lot of love and thought to the house; if I were she I’d want to know about some big problem spots like mildew and filth in cabinet under the kitchen sink (including a soaking wet placemat and a jumble of unorganized detergents and clutter with lots of black mildew). One of the back bedrooms was unusable due to overwhelming mildew smell. We kept that door closed; it would have been unhealthy for anyone to sleep in. When we arrived, there were piles of unwashed (?) blankets and linens balled up in the laundry room. Also many drawers and cabinets with miscellaneous, dirty, random objects. Main dresser in front bedroom drawers flop downward when open. Kitchen sink has only a dribble of cold water, otherwise full on hot. As mentioned, management staff was responsive to a couple other problems. It would be a shame not to take care of this gorgeous house and setting. We’d happily stay here again if the mildew issue and cleanliness were fixed, especially if the price were less, but wouldn’t otherwise. Hopefully part of the problem is due to new to rental market and problems will be corrected. Makes me sad that the basic cleanliness and organization of house items isn’t better-seems like a fairly easy fix to make the cottage so much nicer, and it is an especially beautiful property otherwise-I’d love to stay every year if it weren’t for the problems and mismatch of price and reality. (Mildew in the back bedroom is a separate and bigger issue.) Not one roach or bug though! Management came through on their pest spray commitment that I spoke with them about after seeing worrisome May 2021 review. I hope they take care of the house and invest a little time on the problems-it’s pretty special.

Nice location a couple of miles south of the busy center of Surf City. The house itself was quiet, and the beach was uncrowded. This house has a layout that is spacious, but inviting, with great ocean views from the front half of the house. Beds and furniture were comfortable, and my kids especially enjoyed the sturdy bunk bed setup. The decks are amazing, and we spent a ton of time on them. Beach access was right at the end of short walkway connected to the lower deck. Hard to beat 10 seconds from walking out the front door to toes in the sand! Also hard to beat is a dog-friendly beachfront rental, so thanks to the owner for allowing furry friends to tag along. We did have a couple of problems: 1. The dishwasher wasn't working. Didn't affect us too much as we just hand washed, and also ate out quite a few times. 2. Both showers were clogged to a degree that they would start forming a puddle within 20 seconds or so. It was annoying enough that we cleaned up the kids in the outside shower every day, and even the adults bathed outside a few times. On Monday, I messaged the property management/realty team. (They were quite responsive to questions before and during the stay.) They politely apologized and referred the matter to the property services team. So far, so good, but I didn't hear from that team until Wednesday, and they basically thanked me for making them aware of the issues, and told me they'd see how soon they could get them fixed. I assume the issues have been addressed at this point, but it didn't happen during the course of our visit. I wouldn't hesitate to stay at this house again, but can't go with the full 5-star rating for my first visit.

Definitely not what we expected, or what we paid for. Upon arrival, the house had NOT been cleaned, including the bathrooms so I spent the first hour or two upon arrival cleaning the house. The house is way more rustic than the pictures let on, too. The first night, my teen daughter shrieked in horror, she had to kill a bug in the bathroom. I didn’t think much about it until two nights later, we were all sitting on the couch after a day at the beach and my 7 year old niece screamed bloody murder. There was a giant 3”COCKROACH crawling on her. She was horrified. We killed it and shortly after another cockroach crawled out from under the tv stand. I immediately took pictures and sent them to the property managers. Our skin was crawling and our kids were scared of walking/sitting anywhere! I heard back from the property manager about noon the next day and they said “those are just ‘palmetto bugs’ -they could send someone out to spray but that could increase the bug activity in the house temporarily. Umm NO THANKS. We decided to hold off so we wouldn’t have even more come out of the woodworks and didn’t want to live in bug spray fumes the rest of our trip, plus we figured maybe those were the only ones there were and had come in when we were going in and out of the house all day. So later that night, lights off and here come the roaches! We were up all night killing them, some flew at us! I know they called them palmetto bugs, but they are still disease carrying cockroaches. They were all over the walls, including above the beds. We were disgusted and the kids were terrified. Throughout the stay I had to double wash dishes we used for fear cockroaches crawled over them. I was constantly cleaning. We killed or saw at least 14 roaches of all different sizes (most 3”) throughout the house, coming in through cracks in the walls. Yuk! I took live pictures and sent them to the property manager late that night expressing our disgust, explaining that we were NOT going to continue our vacation in a cockroach infested house. We had to throw away over $100 in food and although they refunded us the two nights we didn’t stay there, they did NOT refund us the third night, which we requested due to extra costs we incurred from having to rent hotel rooms for all 8 of us, additional food costs, etc. due this horrid situation. The neighbors around us hadn’t seen one bug in their houses. Had we known we’d be vacationing with cockroaches we’d have booked another house.

Definitely not what we expected, or what we paid for. Upon arrival, the house had NOT been cleaned, including the bathrooms so I spent the first hour or two upon arrival cleaning the house. The house is way more rustic than the pictures let on, too. The first night, my teen daughter shrieked in horror, she had to kill a bug in the bathroom. I didn’t think much about it until two nights later, we were all sitting on the couch after a day at the beach and my 7 year old niece screamed bloody murder. There was a giant 3”COCKROACH crawling on her. She was horrified. We killed it and shortly after another cockroach crawled out from under the tv stand. I immediately took pictures and sent them to the property managers. Our skin was crawling and our kids were scared of walking/sitting anywhere! I heard back from the property manager about noon the next day and they said “those are just ‘palmetto bugs’ -they could send someone out to spray but that could increase the bug activity in the house temporarily. Umm NO THANKS. We decided to hold off so we wouldn’t have even more come out of the woodworks and didn’t want to live in bug spray fumes the rest of our trip, plus we figured maybe those were the only ones there were and had come in when we were going in and out of the house all day. So later that night, lights off and here come the roaches! We were up all night killing them, some flew at us! I know they called them palmetto bugs, but they are still disease carrying cockroaches. They were all over the walls, including above the beds. We were disgusted and the kids were terrified. Throughout the stay I had to double wash dishes we used for fear cockroaches crawled over them. I was constantly cleaning. We killed or saw at least 14 roaches of all different sizes (most 3”) throughout the house, coming in through cracks in the walls. Yuk! I took live pictures and sent them to the property manager late that night expressing our disgust, explaining that we were NOT going to continue our vacation in a cockroach infested house. We had to throw away over $100 in food and although they refunded us the two nights we didn’t stay there, they did NOT refund us the third night, which we requested due to extra costs we incurred from having to rent hotel rooms for all 8 of us, additional food costs, etc. due this horrid situation. The neighbors around us hadn’t seen one bug in their houses. Had we known we’d be vacationing with cockroaches we’d have booked another house.