We want to give an informational and constructive review, in hopes that it will give other families more detailed information, and hopefully the owners some ideas of how to easily make a 2.5-3 star experience at least a 4 star. The building management has some work to do with their staff as well.
We have stayed at a lot of beachfront rental condos, mainly in Hilton head Island, and we’ve been to Marco once- last year, so we had high expectations, especially for what we paid- which was over $500 a night. Some easy fixes for that condo would be: more bath towels- i believe we had 5 for our family or 4, wash rags, bathroom hand towels, a bath mat, a tub plug that works- for younger kids, new pillows- the ones at the condo are really gross, a plumbing tune up in the master bath- the toilet won’t fill unless you hold the handle slightly down for 5 seconds, a working blow dryer in the master, rugs next to the beds, and in front of the screen balcony- to help with the inevitable sand spread throughout the condo. Also, a king size bed in the master would be nice, along with updated furniture. Update the beach chairs- Costco has some great Tommy Bahama ones for a great deal- you can wear them on your back even. A nice wagon for that Long Beach walk would be a huge plus too!
Families with younger kids, please note, the walk from the front door of the condo to the beach is a 1/2 mile, so be prepared. I clocked it on my watch multiple times- might as well get credit for the workout! Our 6 and 8 year old were super sick of the long walk after a week.
Also, I would not consider this condo building to have a child friendly pool area. Most times we were down there, the area was filled with older people who gave us dirty looks just for having our kids down there. Also, the pool area is patrolled by one of the rudest humans we have ever encountered…and it’s literally her full time job to patrol the pool area- she even chalks your chair and times you to make sure you get there within 30 min…
All of tower 3 and 4 share one small pool and there’s no hot tub- she made it clear that it’s hard to accommodate all of the tenants and guests with that pool area…and that’s our problem??
The management of the towers was extremely rude overall- we were NOT impressed. The girl working the office desk was super nice though. By the time we got there at check in Saturday, the office was closed, and the guard told us it wouldn’t open until Monday, which wasn’t true- it was open Sunday. Anyways, we got there and realized that you can only access the pool/beach door with a pin #, your 6 keys won’t work on that door, BUT you have to get your PIN number from the office. We kindly asked the maintenance guy if he would share the pin with us- we had our set of condo keys, as well as our rental agreement in hand, he said: “why would I give you the pin, I don’t know who you are. You need to go to the office and get the pin…” the office that was closed. Thankfully a super nice tenant gave us a heads up about the building grounds staff there and gave us the pin.
In short- we LOVE Marco and our vacation was amazing. The island is so special and filled with great people and lots of beach adventure, unfortunately the accommodations and condo building and grounds were the one downfall. We actually tried to stay away as much as we could throughout the week.
If you’ve never rented a beachfront condo, and have older kids, this one might work for you.