Name: Watercrest by Book That Condo
Address: 6201 Thomas Dr, Lower Grand Lagoon, Lower Grand Lagoon, Lower Grand Lagoon, 32408, United States of America
Rating: 7

Smoke-free property

Outdoor furniture

No elevators

General

Sun Deck

Recreation

Children swimming pool

Kids

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Location

Panama City Beaches

The Sea Dragon

Thomas Drive

Water Planet

Adventures at Sea

NW Florida Beaches Int

Watercrest by Book That Condo

Lower Grand Lagoon

Unit 1607 at Watercrest was clean with an open concept which we loved. However, it is dated. The view was spectacular. The building is not conveniently located. There are no restaurants nearby. We had to drive out for food. The condominium complex is old and in need of repair. See Pros and Cons below:

Pros:
•	The three spacious bedrooms have comfortable beds. 
•	All three bathrooms were also spacious and clean. 
•	The living room/communal area has plenty of seating. 
•	The dining room table was large enough to seat most of our family.  
•	The ocean front view was great.
•	There were plenty of dishes/pots and pans.
•	The pool proximity to the beach was great.
•	The beach was exceptionally clean and well kept.
Cons:
•	The building is old with no lobby.
•	The tiki hut has limited food selection.
•	The walkway to the pool was dirty with standing water.
•	No restaurants nearby
•	There was a strong vinegar smell in the unit when we arrived.
•	The water in Master bedroom 1 was too cold (Only had 1 hot shower after maintenance)
•	The water in master bedroom 2 was too hot (maintenance repaired)
•	Cleaning surcharge fee was $359.00, and we were asked to:
a.	 load and run the dishwasher before leaving.
b.	Take out all trash before leaving.
c.	Start a load of towels before leaving. (We washed all towels when we arrived as well because we did not trust that the previous guest properly washed them.)
d.	Strip the bed sheets.
e.	Clean excessive fingerprints from glass
f.	Leave the unit in the same condition as when we arrived.
•	Linen – Additional Guest surcharge fee was $140.00 (We had no additional guest) and was asked to:
a.	Wash a load of towels before leaving.
b.	Strip the bed sheets.
•	Additional parking surcharge fee was $69.00 for a second car.
•	Management Property Protection surcharge fee was $69.00.
•	The property manager only responded to text messages. Did not answer phone calls.
•	We were uncomfortable with the ‘ring doorbell’. We felt like we were being watched when coming and going.


Spacious Unit/Need Repairs

The location is convenient to popular restaurants but not entirely family friendly as there are strip clubs with generous advertising close by. 
The building was great, had good parking, and amenities.  Our balcony and view  was amazing (unit 1610).

Great

Upon arrival, the unit was older, but looked OK.  Shortly after entering the unit, we discovered that there were dirty pans in the dishwasher with caked on food.  Also, the Mr. Coffee pot was never cleaned from the last occupant.  A representative arrived shortly after our arrival to give us our parking pass, pool wristbands and to inform us of the broken towel bar on the glass shower doors.  She said that maintenance was aware of such and would be up to fix the shower bars.
The following morning, we discovered so much more wrong with the unit.  Per instructions of our booking through VRBO, we immediately called and texted Emerald Coast Destinations to inform them of the problems.  
We texted the below to her the day after our arrival:

“We spent all morning cleaning the unit:
1-sweeping the floors, particularly under beds, dressers and chairs-  There were piles of dirt, papers and other debris, including a condom wrapper in the 3rd bedroom!
2-vacuuming the rugs- The dirt cup was full and we emptied it.  With every sweep of the machine, you could see a lighter stripe in the one rug.  When we were done, the cup was filled with sand.
3-defrosting the freezer- The ice maker is defective.  It leaks and an iceberg is created locking in the tray and creating one solid mound of ice in the tray.
4-cleaning the mold inside the clothes washer as best we could with Clorox wipes.
5-scrubbing a used tray that was in the dishwasher and never run.
6-Cleaning the coffee pot which was never even rinsed since last tenant.
7-Disinfecting the dining room table which was grimey and sticky.
8-Cleaning the air conditioner return vent which was caked with grime that was so disgusting.  It really should be taken off and scrubbed on both sides.
9-cleaning the dryer vent of accumulated lint since last occupant.
10-Wiping all tables in bedrooms which was sticky to the touch
11-Wiping the fan blades which were layered with dust
12-Cleaning the refrigerator drawers and glass surfaces which had caked rings from previous occupant.
13-Cleaning the furniture covers which had crumbs and other food scraps in the crevices.
Additionally, the towel bar on the shower door in the secondary bedroom is broken.  We were told maintenance would be up to fix it.  It is still broken.
Generally, we are very disappointed with the cleanliness of the unit, especially since there is such a high cleaning fee attached to the rental through VRBO.  It appears that beds are made and towels piled and that is all that is actually done by the cleaning crew.”
Emerald Coast Destinations indicated that she would address the above issues on Monday morning.  Despite several texts and phone calls, she never contacted me again.
I would never book one of these properties or through VRBO again.  There is no guarantee that you will have what has been represented.  To make matters worse, upon our arrival home, I contacted VRBO and was told that it was too late to verbalize any concern about the unit since we were no longer there.
I told the agent that I contacted Emerald Coast as directed, but she kept saying it was too late to do anything about it.  
In addition to the above, the mattresses are sold old it is as if you are sleeping in a hammock.  You lie down on the bed and roll directly into the middle.  Half of the lights do not work.  They are missing the on/off knobs, have non-working lightbulbs or are simply not plugged in.  Two of the lightbulbs in the 2nd bathroom did not work and one of the other bulbs flickered on and off repeatedly.  The kitchen is only modestly appointed.  The TV in the 2nd bedroom only received 2 channels: #2 and the Hallmark Channel.  The view from the balcony is wonderful, but the amenities of the residence are far from adequate, and even when you follow the booking directions, you are deceived into believing that your concerns will be addressed.  No one ever does address your concerns, and everyone points figures at the other to address the problem.  VRBO says we have to contact the owner, but we have no contact information for the owner of the unit.
I WOULD NEVER BOOK THROUGH VRBO OR WITH EMERALD COAST DESTINATIONS AGAIN!

FILTHY AND ABSOLUTELY NO SERVICE PROVIDED-UNIT 1504

1208 is horrible compared to our past experiences here. The unit was dirty. You get very little of the basic toiletries. The owner didn’t care. I’ll stay away from Sandcastle Vacations and the units they own here in the future. We’ve rented nice units here before so I don’t think this is representative of the rest of the condos at Watercrest.

Not impressed with 1208

We enjoyed our stay in Watercrest Unit 604 which we rented from Wanda through VRBO. Our 3 bed 3 bath unit was perfect for 5 adults and 3 children. The elevators were fast with no wait. The balcony was a nice size and made for a beautiful evening view. The unit was clean. Beds were comfortable. We had the cooking items we needed. The grounds and hallways were kept clean . The adults wore the arm bands but I did not put them on the children.....12, 4, & 2. We experienced no problems. Will definitely consider staying here again.

Fun Family Trip

We were told check-in was between 4 to 6. We arrived at 4 and decided to sit at the tiki bar for awhile to give cleaning plenty of time to finish up. We arrived with our carts loaded to our room at 4:30 and discovered the cleaning crew, which consisted of a man, woman and little boy, were still in our unit cleaning. We hung around the balcony overlooking the parking lot until 5:10 when they finally came out. They looked very much harried and stressed when they came out. We walked into a unit that still had sand, dirt and stickiness on the floor. We had no broom to sweep up the filth so we had to run to the store to buy a broom. There was still tackiness on the counter tops from their cleaning products and when it dried it left a film all over. We noticed late Sunday night both bathroom floors were soaked. I called Monday to report the problem and someone called me back very quickly. I informed her we would be out for several hours and she said she would report the problem to maintenance. When we came back I expected to see a note or something saying they were there, but found nothing. Floors were still wet. I sent an email to ask if they had been in to fix the problem. The response back was to call a number to check to see. Now I am on vacation and the last thing I want to do is call around to see if our problem was fixed. The most professional step they should have done was to check it out for me and email me back to say yes or no if someone had been in our unit to fix the leak. Apparently it was fixed because the next day we no longer had flooded bathroom floors.
We were told we would have starter supplies such as dishwasher detergent, garbage bags, dish soap, etc. We had nothing! The one bathroom had a quarter roll of toilet paper in it. Thankfully we had read the reviews before arrival regarding the very small coffee maker in the unit. We brought our own Keurig machine. Every condo we have ever stayed in has always had a regular coffee maker and Keurig machine in them. We had 7 towels for 7 people. We ended up buying more towels and wash clothes because we did not want to spend our entire vacation doing laundry!
Our biggest complaint about Watercrest though was their ridiculous security. I never read anywhere that wristbands were required; in fact if I would have been told they were, we would have chosen another place to stay. There were 7 of us in our party and we refused to wear the wristbands. Needless to say we had several words with only the one security guard woman. She made it her mission to walk around asking us for our wristbands. By day 3 everyone in our party along with other guests that she continuously harassed all knew she knew our faces and knew we belonged to this particular property. We were harassed if we sat out by the pool at night because she would walk around with her flashlight and "remind" us that the pool closed at 10. This started at 9 and we eventually left at 9:50 because we were tired of the harassment. We weren't even using the pool, we were just sitting out there trying to enjoy the evening. On Monday at noon we were heading out to our vehicle and our daughter was carrying her little overnight bag, the security woman had the gall to approach us and ask us if we were leaving and if we knew what time check out was!
I tried reaching out to the property management to complain about the bullying and harassment we were receiving from this particular security woman. All I got back in response was they have nothing to do with security and the wristbands are mandatory. That little tip would have been nice to know before booking, that wristbands are mandatory because that would most definitely been a deal breaker for us staying at this poorly run property!
When we are charged over three thousand for a week's stay and have to put up with all of the problems and the bullying by their staff, something should be done. We will never stay at Watercrest again due to the poorly run staff and zero support from the property management!

Never again due to their security!

We took our little family to Panama City Beach and stayed right on the water in a VRBO condo at the Watercrest on the Far East end of the beach, 6210 Thomas Drive.  We chose this location because I wanted to be away from people and Covid.  I chose our condo #204 because it was on the second floor, right over the pool and you only had to take one flight of stairs, not wait for elevator.  On our balcony, you felt like you were sitting right on the beach. Plus when you come off the beach, you could throw your stuff up on the balcony instead of going around and up the stairs.  Our condo was a three bedroom and very nice furnishings. The owner Wanda Rehberg was very nice and very responsive.  We only went out to eat once that week and chose Sharkys so we could sit outside, practically on the beach.  The beaches at PCB are so white and beautiful.   We set up a tent on the beach every morning.   Definitely will be going back every year!

Wonderful beach experience 

Just don't do it. Toothpaste spit on faucet and sink. Blood on unwashed mattress pad, sunflower shells under sheets on bed, food smears all over sofa and loveseat. Floors were not swept and had not been mopped in a long time. Floor sticky. Food crumbs in cabinets and on appliances. Bath mat dirty and matted down from use. Washer covered with dirt inside. Dishes in cabinets were dirty. Pictures can only tell a portion of how nasty it really was.

FILTHY

We arrived to a dirty condo in the midst of COVID. The showers had not been cleaned, food in frig/freezer/cabinets. No sheets on the beds and clothing left in one. Five stained dirty towels left in washer. Mirrors, stove, microwave, and frig sprayed wIth something but not cleaned. No paper towels to clean with. Dirty rugs. I had to make the beds and clean showers just so we could sleep first night. I called owner (in Atlanta) and she sent maid next morning and offered to comp first night. Maid came and cleaned all day next day. I tipped her.  Owner now offers $50 refund to me. I tipped the maid $30 so it barely covers that. 
The next night it rained and the sliding doors flooded.  Workers had to come up. I cleaned up that mess too. 
There are five bath towels for a 2 bed/2bath condo. They are dirty, old and stained. 3 washcloths. I travel for a living and have never stayed somewhere like this.  
The kitchen is so poorly stocked.  No baking sheet, limited pans.
The maid took the mattress pads to laundry mat and never returned with them 
The blind in the master is broken and wont open so you never get the view from the bedroom.

The Watercrest, unit 1608

Room wasn’t the cleanest. Broken glass on the counter when we arrived. Parking warning for improper display of parking pass. Hot tubs closed. Decent price for a 3 bedroom. We’ll stick with Miramar Beach next vacation.

Watercrest by Book That Condo

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