Livin' The Dream & Poolside Paradise at Carillon Beach

Gorgeous home and perfect location. Super clean!

For me it was more like "Livin' the Nightmare!" The house is fine-some electrical issues, but nice and clean. The community is very nice. The reason that I gave such a low review are the events leading to the trip. We rented 2 large beach houses that were close together for a multi-generational trip. As we were assigning rooms, we realized that to best suit our situations, it would require putting 2-3 more people in this house. There were beds to accommodate (15 beds and a crib) but the owners said no...even the 1 year old in a crib had to count as one of the 12. So, I saw that the contract said that you could pay additional for extra people, so I asked again. At this point, the owner said, "I have a bad feeling about you-you want to break our rules, so I'm going to cancel." This was 1 week before our trip! After much groveling on my part, he agreed to the trip, but we had to split up the group in a less than optimal way. His parting words on this phone call was that he "could cancel at any time because it is his house" and that he "didn't have to give me back my money." At this time, I had paid in full! He also told me that he'd be watching the cameras and might even come to check on us to make sure that we weren't breaking his rules. Then, I had to repeat to him that I would not break the rules and then put it in writing again in a separate email. I've honestly never been spoken to in this way and the only reason I put up with it was so that our family trip could happen. I wasn't certain until we had access that we were really going to be able to get in. Lots of sleepless nights. BEWARE--read all 31 pages of his contract! Rules such as you can't have visitors over if the number exceeds 12--so my mother and nieces couldn't even come by for morning coffee or we'd be evicted and charged an event fee! (Believe me, I asked--not to have a party, but coffee or breakfast. The answer was no, it would "break the rules.") By the way, our other house was wonderful, had a 3 page reasonable contract, and a kind owner.

Do not recommend. We booked this house along with another house for a family multi- generational family beach trip. We booked it months in advance. Owner wanted a list of who would be in the house and at the time of booking it was so far in advance that we were not sure who would be coming. Melody was kind and said that was fine and it could be adjusted prior to trip. We loved that it had a pool since there would be 4 children under the age of 10. Our thoughts were that the older adults would stay in the beach front house we rented with my 87 year old mother and the families with children would stay in this house. We knew it would need to be quite to accommodate nap schedules and thought the children would enjoy the pool when tired of being on the beach. It could have been the perfect arrangement. The count needed would have been 15 in this house. The youngest child would have been in a portable play pen and the others would have shared the bunk room. Did not seem like a big deal. A week or two before going my sister asked Randy about 15 in the house which had plenty of space and had reviews where other families had had more than 12 stay in the house. The listing for the house even said they could accomodate more for a fee which we were willing to pay. Randy was not only not flexible but was rude. He said no to more in his house. He would not budge. Of the 15 requested to stay 3 were going home mid week and one of the adults had a business meeting and was flying out Monday till late Wednesday night. Honestly the amount of days that would have had 15 in the house was 2 of the 7 days. (one being check in day with check in after 4 ) There would have been 14 in the house 4 of the days(one being a 1 year old) and 3 of the days 12 would have been in the house. At this point we realized to make it work we would have to divide the family up in a less than optimal way. We put my 87 year old mother in the better ocean front house we rented with her grandchildren and great grand children and put adults in Randy and Melodys Living the Dream 30a house. We asked Randy if the children could come over for the pool and he said absolutely not. Randy said he could cancel and not give us our money back and would be watching us on the cameras. Because of this we basically only used the pool one time. We also asked if the others could come over at meal time so we could all eat together. Randy said no to this too and said he would be watching on camera and would charge and event fee and evict us if we did so. We as a family spent all our time at the other house. Thank goodness for the wonderful owner of the beach front house we rented.
Randy treated us as if we were criminals. Melody his wife was sweet. We are a professional family and have NEVER been treated this way. My husband was recovering from a Knee replacement and we originally would have been in the other house that was much closer to the beach. We stayed in Randy and Melodys Living the dream house since Randy was so stubborn to even discuss our requests thus making my husband have futher to walk and carry things while on medical leave for his knee replacement. Basically we used the pool maybe 2 hours all week since the children were not allowed to come visit. Randy is dreadful to work with. If you decide to rent this house read his 30 plus pages of rules and it you want more than 12 get it in contract form.