Casa Del Mar Longboat Key

Location, location, location! Our family recently concluded our second stay at Casa del Mar and it could not have been a better vacation spot. The proximity to the Sarasota Airport and the beautiful town of St. Armands, coupled with the even closer proximity to wonderful restaurants, local shops and Publix added to the ease of our trip. The staff we encountered at Casa del Mar were extremely pleasant, efficient, knowledgeable, and attentive. Our beautiful condo had the perfect beach vibe as well as a magnificent view of the Gulf of Mexico. As soon as we stepped off our patio, our feet were on a pristine beach. We enjoyed our morning coffee on the patio, walks on the beach, viewed dolphins frolicking in the Gulf, spent the afternoons relaxing on the beach and evenings dining at fabulous restaurants. There is also a lovely pool, but our family could not get our feet out of the sand and Gulf! We are already planning our return trip and are looking forward to our Casa del Mar vacation next year!

I have been coming to Casa Del Mar since 1989 and love the place, which we is why I have visited so many times. However on this trip we had booked Unit C11 for the last two weeks of our four week stay having spent the first two weeks in B11. After receiving confirmation for our stay in C11 we were contacted by CDM some weeks later and told that we had been moved to C12 as the owners now required C11. I looked on the website and wasn’t totally happy with the pictures of C12. I checked availability for other units. But due to the memorial week they were fully booked. On arrival in C12 my first impression was that it needed a facelift and was dated, even though some of the furniture was new. We checked around the unit and found the following faults: The cable socket in the master bedroom had been pulled from the wall and was hanging by the cable, The flooring bar between master bedroom and en-suite was loose and dangerous, The handle for the recliner chair was broken and sticking out at an angle of 45 degrees and was dangerous and around the top windows in the living room there was black around two of the windows, either dirt or mould or both. We also found that the sliding patio doors would not lock, but this was easily fixed with a spray of WD40. All of these issues should have been found and fixed before our occupation, surely CDM should not rely on the occupants to report the faults! Also the internet in this unit is terrible. Each unit should have its own internet, but with a common password for the every unit. Not a good idea!. We were unable to connect the smart tv to the internet as it wouldn’t find our unit and had to rely on using another units internet. It was the same with our iPads and phones, some days it would find C12 but wouldn’t accept the password and if you were able to connect it was so slow. All these issues were reported and fixed apart from the internet which is still the same. Then to continue the theme and the reason for this review is that on Friday night I sat on the bottom of one of the single beds and the bed collapsed causing me to fall off, luckily no serious injury. On checking underneath I found that the bed leg had become detached from its fixing, just another sign of an refurb/update being seriously required. C11 looks like a beautiful modernised unit and C12 is the opposite, so is it right that you should have to pay the same price when you take into account the standard of the various units? I think not and I would not want to stay in C12 again until it had been modernised. Casa Del Mar is still a wonderful place and I will continue to stay here in the future, but in a unit of my request and not one that I was forced into using.

Our vacation was ruined by having to kill giant COCKROACHES in our unit on 3 different nights in one week. The first night we were shocked but after killing a single cockroach figured it was over…the next night I had to kill 2 more GIANT COCKROACHES and my wife and elderly in-laws couldn’t sleep, having to leave lights on and blocking doors with towels. I was so upset that I went to the office and informed them, unsurprised they asked if we wanted to pack up all of our clothes, food, toiletries etc.and move to another unit which would have been a lot for my in-laws in their mid 80’s and us in our 60’s. So they offered us the use of a beach umbrella and called an exterminator who they are on a first name basis with. The next night we killed another GIANT COCKROACH and a lizard, and the last night killed 2 large worms slithering under the table. Again I went to the office to complain, the women who the prior day said they would speak with the manager, said there was NOTHING they would do! The week before us, my brother in-law killed a GIANT COCKROACH in a different unit. We saw a large SNAKE in the shin deep grass next to the pool. They have raccoons that walk around the gas grills and units at night. I have never written a review of a resort or restaurant in my 35 years of traveling but wanted to warn others of what to expect.