RENTER BEWARE RE: Meredith Lodging Vacation Rentals or BeachFrontRentals.net are rented "AS IS WHERE IS" meaning if you rent a vacation home from Meredith Lodging based on what you see in the photos or description and the Vacation Home is in disrepair and in very different condition than what was advertised in the photos you will have no recourse and Meredith Lodging will not compensate you. See below for details on our experience.

May 2022 -Review on "Whale Watchers Condo 1" has an amazing view, but furniture is/was in disrepair such that it dramatically reduced the value of our rental and the overall enjoyment of our holiday (see below). Independent of the furniture, "Whale Watcher's Condo" is a fourplex and an old building with very thin walls and ceilings. On the nights when there were people in the unit above us we could hear them walking, moving and talking. I would not recommend this unit if you are looking for peace and tranquility as there are far better options in the area.

What Happened:

This was the third trip my wife and I took to Rockaway Beach. We love the area and have had nothing but good experiences with other management companies and vacation rentals. Our usual spot wasn't available so we tried Meredith Lodging (ML) for the first time. We found an ad on Meredith Lodging's website with beautiful photos of a Vacation Home named "Whale Watchers Condo 1", in Rockaway Beach. The ad's photos showed an amazing view of the ocean, comfortable patio furniture to enjoy the view and a modern looking sofa inside facing the ocean view. We rented this unit for 5 days in May 2022 trusting the ad, reviews and photos. We picked this unit based on the photos and description and envisioned our holiday spending lots of time relaxing and enjoying the view while we chatted and read books over the 5 days.

Upon our arrival we found that some of the advertised key furniture was either destroyed, severely rusted or collapsing to a point where it was no longer comfortable or usable. On the patio, the frame of the wicker sofa was rusted through and had collapsed prior to our arrival making it completely unusable. When I sat in one of the wicker chairs the rusted bottom frame collapsed (FYI - I am 200 lbs) making the chair unusable. The remaining metal bistro set and table were covered in rust and dilapidated, when I briefly sat in one of the rusted hard chairs I stained the back of my white jacket, and I still have not been able to get the stains out yet.

The sofa in the living room looked cosmetically nice but as soon as we sat on the cushions we sank deep into the sofa well past the frame. The sofa was extremely uncomfortable and had minimal structural support with the main support coming from the hard frame pressing on your legs. This condo was advertised as sleeping 4, I do not see how 2 people could comfortably sleep on this sofa. I immediately contacted Meredith Lodging and they were very polite and seemed responsive. Halfway through our stay (2.5 days) the maintenance person moved two plastic patio chairs over from the owner's suite which was the unit beside us. Had I known this was an option I would have done this on day one myself. ML told us they would speak with the owner about replacing the interior sofa upon our departure. The maintenance person also acknowledged the poor condition of the furniture and took photos of it too.

I sent ML my photos of the furniture as well as screen captures of their advertised photos. I did not expect the sofa to be replaced during our stay however, I did expect some financial compensation for the fact that I rented a vacation condo based on photos that were very misleading and we could not enjoy the exterior patio for half our stay nor the interior sofa for our whole stay. They referred me to their contract which states their units are rented "AS IS WHERE IS". I checked their contract and this term is in there, but I expected based on the blatant difference between the photos and condition of the furniture they would take the high road to retain a future customer and avoid loss of good will. They did not and our request for a partial refund for the state of disrepair of furniture and their misleading ad was denied.

So my big takeaway from this experience: When you rent a Vacation Rental from Meredith Lodging "Sight Unseen" online you should not rely upon or trust the photos, description or reviews as being accurate. If what you believe you rented turns out to be in disrepair you will not be compensated. This builds no trust with the online renters whom have no way of independently verifying what they see in the ad as being correct. This is a very poor business practice/model.

Any vacation rental company or vacation home can have repair issues with their units, I understand this is the nature of the business. The difference between a good company/vacation rental unit and bad company/ vacation rental unit is what they do when there is a substantial problem brought to their attention. When given overwhelming evidence of the condo not being what was advertised, Meredith Lodging essentially moved two cheap chairs over from the owner's unit 2.5 days in, and offered nothing else. FYI, upon further research, we found this condo on Airbnb and there were several reviews from other renters regarding the condition of this sofa. I suspect ML and the owner knew about this issue prior to our rental. The owner changing the sofa after our departure does nothing to compensate us nor does it recognize that their advertised photos did not represent the condition of the furniture. ML was polite on the phone but in the end their comments were just lip service.

We love Rockaway Beach and this was our third trip there, but my first time using Meredith Lodging. We will return but we will definitely not be using Meredith Lodging again or staying at the Whale Watcher's Inn.

I would not recommend Meredith Lodging or the Whale Watcher's Inn, there are far better units in the area and better management companies that honour what they advertise.

Take a look at the photos from our trip vs. the photos advertised on their website below see if you agree.