Sea Colony by Carolina Retreats

The beach access is perfect, and I love this place enough to visit whenever I can. The grounds are kept up well. The pool needed attention, though: there was plenty of sand on the bottom and debris floating around, and the grime on the blue tiles was the worst part.

We found it affordable for a family trip. One thing to know is that the property is three stories, and some decks are open above, without a roof between floors. Sand fell from the deck overhead onto our dinner one evening.

The bathroom also leaked into the unit below, but the main problem happened on day 5: our car was towed. We had parked in a nearly empty lot all week during the off-season, and our parking pass had blown off the dashboard. There were still 12 empty spaces, yet the towing company charged almost $300. It feels like the property and towing company are in cahoots, extorting vacationers. They should be ashamed. I’ll never stay here again.

The location is peaceful, but our unit from Going Coastal smelled strongly of must as soon as we walked in. It soon seemed clear that mould and mildew were the problem. I told the property, and they offered to send someone to clean the black mould around the air vents. That needs proper remediation, though, especially since it’s surely in the ventilation system. There were no other units available at such short notice. Because the booking was last minute, I couldn’t find other lodging, so we stayed despite our better judgment. I spent the weekend apologizing to my family for the deplorable conditions. After we left, they asked me to review the stay. I contacted Going Coastal about the unit and received less than half a night’s stay as a refund. They said this was unusual and that they hadn’t heard about it before. But when I checked the reviews again, the first one I saw was from a woman whose family had the same concerns just three days earlier. I consider Unit 18b a health hazard. A suitable maintenance company and cleaning crew need to deal with this properly.