This is a great house in a great area and I would stay here again. With a few improvements, this could be a 5 star home. As it is, I give it 4 1/2 stars.
Pros:
Very Clean home (a must in our book)!
Great layout. Lots of different areas to entertain. Would be good for large families or multiple ones. The lanai area around the pool is the gem of the place. Nice, updated furniture (plenty of it), large space, multiple access to it from house, great pool & nice view of canal.
Comfortable beds and furniture throughout the house. Clean bathrooms with nice towels. Plenty of hot water w/good pressure.
Good amount of supplies: T.P., paper towel, soaps etc.
TVs in every room, adequate lighting throughout.
Decorated nicely with a "homey" feel.
Cons:
The kitchen is the biggest issue with the place. It really needs to be gutted. The drawers are not on rollers so opening and closing them is difficult. The cabinet doors don't close tight, with two of them having a rubber band around their handles to keep them together. The contents of the kitchen are some of the worst I've seen. A mix & match of garage sale items. Only 1 small/med. sauce pan, no slotted spoon, no cereal bowls. The silverware drawer needs to be emptied, painted and organized. Who knows what was on the bottom. We cleaned everything before using. The fridge was VERY clean and made plenty of ice! Cabinets had too much "stuff" left from past renters. Who would trust that?? Dump it and clean them!
The dock was nice and large. It needs work though. I pounded popped up nails as I found them. Lots of loose boards. It's still safe, just needs attention. We did not have a boat. Good thing as the boat lift only had one runner with wood. Unusable.
Bikes need work. Flat tires with a broken air pump. Not a big deal for us so no need to call them. I did however email the owner later describing in detail what needed fixing. No response, crickets. Disappointing and would have hoped for at least a thank you.
They want you to strip beds and do some laundry. Not a huge deal but when you're paying a decent cleaning fee, that should be on them. We knew it going in so we did it. Kind of a pain in the butt when you're leaving at 5 am.
In conclusion, if you're not using the kitchen much, it's close to a 5 star property. The communication was above average once we got Nats number. I'm sure they would have taken care of some of the issues had we called them. Worth renting!