13223 Oleander Dr - The Opulent Pearl by Blue Swell

We chose this house for our wedding weekend, 8/27/2021 - 8/29/2021, and brought family in from several states for the ceremony and reception we had planned. The house itself is beautiful, though it wasn't as clean as we'd expected. On the second day we discovered bedbugs. With hurricane Ida happening, my family tried hard to find other rooms, but everything was full. That threw our plans and celebration completely off. The owner showed little sensitivity to what we were dealing with. When my wife politely explained why we were unhappy, the owner spoke down to her and called her money hungry and a schemer because she wasn't willing to compensate us for the bedbugs or the lack of electricity on the deck, where we planned to entertain more than 20 guests. We won't be back.

The beach access made this a popular spot with the wedding guests, and the place seemed clean. I saw no sign of the bedbugs mentioned in some reviews from about eight months earlier. Still, I found it overpriced and overhyped, even if its asking price is north of $11M. We rented the two narrow buildings together for three nights as part of a destination wedding. They connect at the bottom and can also be rented separately. There are lots of stairs and a tiny elevator I wouldn't use. Each house has a full kitchen with two refrigerators, plus another refrigerator on the ground floor. The buildings sit right on the beach, but many furnishings and bathrooms are showing their age. The air conditioning worked almost too well: we wore sweats to bed and never figured out how to turn the temperature up. Parking is tough for a larger wedding, especially with more than about six cars. Street parking isn't allowed, with signs warning that cars will be towed. The other lot is blocks away, a rough walk in Florida heat and humidity.

The wedding itself was wonderful, and Ashlee Hatcher did a great job planning it and helping the day run smoothly. We booked both houses for May 2022, then called the Barefoot Prince and the Quiet Lady, and loved having so many bedrooms for our guests, even though some were small. The top-floor bunk area is more of an open hallway with beds than a closed room. The decks have lovely ocean views, the kitchens have big gathering tables, and the beach ceremony followed by a deck reception worked beautifully. Management could open part of the dividing wall so we could move between the two decks. Booking was a headache. We reserved more than a year ahead, while Genese Hatcher changed management from VRBO to Blue Swell. We had to keep checking that the reservation wouldn't disappear in the switch. Blue Swell was helpful, but Genese called or messaged us several times confused about dates and payments. Once she said the wedding was still on but we had the wrong dates. Another time she demanded an extra night because we supposedly hadn't met a minimum stay, though Blue Swell checked the next business day and said that night was already booked by someone else. Other wedding vendors told us Genese had recently cancelled several weddings that were already planned, unless the couples agreed to pay almost twice their original price. Some vendors who'd worked with her often said this had cost her their respect. After checkout, Blue Swell agreed a cabinet door that crumbled during our stay had already been broken and glued together, based on the large amount of glue. Even so, after Genese lost the dispute with Blue Swell, she charged us $800 through VRBO. The VRBO booking had already been cancelled when we spent hours moving it to Blue Swell, and VRBO gave us no recourse, despite Blue Swell agreeing it wasn't our fault. We hate leaving a bad review because our wedding and Ashlee's work were great. But we can't recommend staying while Genese is involved. Even with Blue Swell managing the property, she still made things difficult, and the stress seems especially risky when planning a big event. Please be careful.

We trusted this rental for our annual family reunion, with relatives from 15 months to 76 years old, expecting a clean and safe place to stay. Instead, five of us, including my 7 year old niece, left with bedbug bites. I have 100 bites by myself, and the irritation has been excruciating. As we were leaving, we pulled back the pillow shams and saw fresh blood stains on the pillow, which we believe came from bedbugs. We're sharing this to warn future renters about what felt like unsafe, unhealthy conditions. We hope another family doesn't go through the same thing.