Phoenix Viii 81105 1 Bedroom Condo by Redawning

The pools are freezing!!! No sunlight hitting them to warm them until afternoon. Overgrown shrubbery in parking lots and pool areas. Dirty stinky elevators and commons areas. Staff is unfriendly. Views are obscured.

Our party of two adults stayed six nights in unit 1002. Friends who visit Orange Beach regularly recommended the building. Check in went smoothly and the condo was clean and as advertised. We didn't have any problems during our stay. It wasn't very busy, so parking and crowds weren't an issue. We booked directly through Brett/Robinson Real Estate. I saw the exact same unit for the same dates on a rent from the owner site for more money. We would definitely stay again.

We’ve stayed at Phoenix X and also Phoenix West and were very pleased. However, we decided to stay at Phoenix VIII and have had lots of frustration. The check in desk closes at 5 PM so if you arrive past that you have to walk over to VII after traveling for 11 hours to get here to check in. Also, if you need an extra key during your visit make sure you go before 5 PM because when you walk over to VII they don’t know how to get ahold of security to get you a key. Also, I called at 9am this morning because our toilet won’t flush. It’s now 7:59 pm and they still haven’t fixed it. The front desk said they put in a maintenance request. Also, there was mold on our shower curtain when we arrived. When I called the front desk they did come a few hours later to replace it. This should have been done before we arrived. One more thing, there were dirty dishes in the dishwasher. The front desk said the previous tenants should have washed them. Well they didn’t so housekeeping should have checked. It’s A LOT of money to have this kind of service. So, check reviews before staying at Phoenix VIII. We won’t be back to this one.

My Birthday Week Experience at this Condo Let me begin by saying the condo is nice. I love the pictures posted of the balcony. This is what drew my wife and I to this rental. It’s a balcony, where I pictured, we could relax, where I could possibly smoke a nice Cuban cigar, and have refreshing beverages. The beverages is on track, but the rest is not here! At least not this week. Before you spend your hard earned money on renting this condo, read this. I’ve traveled worldwide, and have always been able to relax and enjoy any balcony we’ve rented responsibly. We found out in the fine print, after we had already sent our money to hold the condo, that it was a non-smoking balcony. In perspective, we get the nonsmoking condo, but the balcony? A fire hazard? I’m not a huge smoker, but being Cuban, I occasionally smoke a fine cigar in the evening, especially after dinner, etc. I called the owner, out of respect to them, and asked if we could responsibly enjoy this balcony with an occasional cigar. He said “No”, that the nonsmoking was a Condo rule. We get it. The owner suggested I’d grab a beer and walk down to the boardwalk pier area and smoke a cigar there. I’m a compliant soul. I’ll get over it lol! So I thought well ok. My thought was and is, if I wanted to drink a beer, etc. and smoke a cigar down the street, I would have rented another place down the street where I can responsibly enjoy a balcony or view as I please. We’re on vacation. I’ll simply leave it at that. We found out on our second day, that in this building, on the 4th floor, there’s a balcony in this building you can smoke at. Interesting, a balcony! Nevertheless, we got to the Condo on our first evening, and without any notice from the owner, we discovered the beach in front of the Condo is gone and being worked on. They are dredging sand back up to the beach with machinery. I understand this area is recovering from the recent hurricanes and storms, but the owner never mentioned anything about the beach in front of the condo being worked on. So remember the picture of the nice view, where you can’t relax, possibly enjoy a cigar on our own tab? Well not here for now! The view and sound this week is bulldozers and machinery on the beach. The reason anyone rents a condo on the beach is to relax on a balcony, enjoy the view, and potentially for me, enjoy a classic cigar. This is why you pay for your vacation. It’s suppose to be a get away! The point is simple. I spoke to the owner of this condo prior to coming, and he never once mentioned the conditions of the beach directly in front of their condo. Owners who rent their places are your eyes and ears, etc. of a place you are going to rent. The owners I’ve dealt with in the past, and all around the world, have always upfront, knowledgeable, and sincere. They have left the choice to me whether to rent the place as currently described by them or not. Once we arrived here, I read on the Turquoise Place website (the condos just down from this one) their Hurricane recovery update for their patrons. Folks, it’s really more than the cigar smoking, the balcony, and the work being done on the beach in front of this condo. It’s the principle. It appears these owners have had some terribly irresponsible people to rent from them in the past, or they are very uninformed about the current conditions of their properties which is not an excuse, or they’re simply more concerned about making the buck. So I get it. It’s business. I understand! So unknowingly, they rented their place out to a travel writer for the week. I do not like writing bad reviews, but here’s just an honest one. It’s just business... The Review: This place will recover from the storms. It’s a beautiful area. In fact, it’s a nice condo and the beach will be very nice once it’s finished. But in principle, I can not recommend these owners or their rentals. They could have been genuinely honest, and forthright about the current beach conditions, etc. and they weren’t. We were already committed to this condo. The refund would have not been sufficient. It’s a nice area, so my recommendation is there are plenty of other nice places to rent. You go a bit further west to Gulf Shores, or East towards Perdido Key and Pensecola Beach as well. We have stayed at places on either side of Orange Beach before where you can responsibly enjoy your balcony, smoke a classic Cuban cigar when you desire (after all you’re on vacation), where you can enjoy the beach, and the owners are more sincerely interactive and honest. This week, we thought we’d enjoy a different adventure and boy did we! We should have enjoyed the places we’ve stayed at before. This will be a story to tell our other owner friends. My suggestion to you is read reviews (Good and Not So Good). Do your research. You deserve it! We will enjoy our time this week any way. I’m on business this week and I’m happy to have my wife here with me. We’re at the beach! It’s my birthday week. I’m 62 years young this week! We will make the best of a bad situation. Like the owner suggested, on this business/vacation week, we will spend time away from his condo. We get it! Note: The place still has some electrical outlet issues in the bedroom, and the light in the dining area dims and comes back. Possibly from the storms. An Account Executive, Elite Writer for Yelp and Travel, Co-owner of a Travel Agency.

We recently stayed at Phoenix VIII in Unit 606. For a few nights there was a sea turtle nest near our boardwalk that led to the beach. When I asked why that boardwalk was not lit at night the front desk person told me it was because of that sea turtle nest, and there were flyers posted about that also. After the nest was removed, that boardwalk was still never lit up at night yet the properties on either side of Phoenix VIII had their boardwalk lit at night. Why is that? We also reported a light not working on our balcony, but it was never fixed while we were there. We were only told that we should not have it turned on anyway, yet other guests had their patio/balcony lights turned on at night. The AC stopped working in our unit, and that was repaired the same day that we reported it. Thanks! We also saw some gnats in our unit, and the toilets easily got clogged. We’ve been visiting Phoenix properties for years, but normally stay at Phoenix X, and never had issues that were not fixed while there before, until our recent visit. With this Covid stuff going on, I’m guessing that maybe they don’t have their full staff working, so things are taking longer to get repaired.