Oregon Beach Vacations

Also submitted a somewhat critical review on their website. It has not yet been posted. We stayed at Above It All (1285 SW Dune Ave) in Lincoln City, Oregon. Nice enough place, but with a few issues. There is no landline phone, which can be a problem when you and your family members have medical issues. We felt lucky I had my cell phone. There are no window coverings in most of the home, resulting in very little privacy and difficulty enjoying the main living room due to the intense sunlight. The company’s response was that the photos of the property showed that there were no window coverings except in the bedrooms. The photos also did not show toilets in the bathrooms, but we felt we could make some presumptions. The occupants in the houses on either side of this home plus in the houses across the road had easy, full view of the interior of our house.
Finally, they were repaving the only access road to the home. We were surprisingly unable to get home after breakfast one morning and had to stay out of the house nearly the entire day. The kind neighbors who helped us find a place to turn around mentioned that they had gotten notification about the paving. None of that information was made available to us ahead of time. The company’s response was that they had no way of knowing when the city would be doing that kind of work, but apparently they should have known. We found a door hanger next to the garbage can as we were leaving for good.
Not sure we will use them again. VRBO seems a better option for us.

The property in Lincoln City was fine but the customer service was simply horrid. I bought a $ 500 gift certificate on Half Price Portland. When my total for the Lincoln City rental was $ 360, I asked how long the expiration for the gift certificate was. I was told «Oh no that just goes away.» Uh… what??? I reported them to the Better Business Bureau which did not sway them at all. Really awful company.

I too wrote a review that was somewhat negative and it was never posted. Too bad. I don’t think I will use them again. Here is my review of the Dungeness cottage located near Beverly Beach. Wish I had checked Unilocal before booking the cottage. Since they sent me a letter and encouraged me to post reviews on Unilocal,etc., I’m going to take them up on it and provide my honest review of this property.
Dungeness Cottage — Beverley Beach just North of Newport
Nice location — Old and Tired Beds
I rented this beach house to celebrate my husband’s 60^th birthday. We stayed Friday through Monday. The house had a nice little backyard area for the dogs, even though it wasn’t totally fenced. It also had a nice fire pit and outdoor furniture with a partial view of the ocean. It is right around the corner from Beverly Beach so that was nice to go down there and let the dogs run an run. The house itself was cute. It was furnished with a couple of coaches that are probably going to need replacing soon as they are getting kind of broken down. It had a nice kitchen table and it was well stocked in the kitchen area. The tv is very tiny and could use updating. The bathroom was nice and it has two bedrooms. It has laminate wood flooring throughout so it was easy to sweep.
Now for the downside… The beds on the other hand were another story. The mattresses are old and broken down and hard as rocks. The mattress covers under the sheets are also stained and old. Our first night’s sleep was pretty bad. I ended up on the coach and my husband had a backache in the morning. The next day we went to Walmart and spent $ 40 on a foam mattress pad. We had to move into the smaller bedroom because that mattress was slightly better than the one we slept on the night before. I stripped the bed and put all the extra blankets and the mattress pad on top of the bed. This helped but I was a bit miffed that I paid over $ 800 to rent this place and I was having to spend extra time and money just to try and sleep at night! I should also mention that there are skylights in the bedrooms and they don’t have covers to block out the light. So, if you don’t want to be woken up at the crack of dawn, I suggest you bring something to cover your eyes with.
I should caution anyone who stays here that there are a lot of fees on this place so I would look around before renting. They wanted a hot tub cleaning fee (which we didn’t use), a regular cleaning fee, a damage waiver fee in addition to the rental fee and pet fee. Why don’t you just include it all in the price?
We did have great weather and made the best of the bed situation. We were, however, very happy to get back to our own plush mattress pad!

We feel cheated after purchasing a «half price coupon» to apply to a rental. First we purchase a $ 500 voucher for $ 250 from Half Price Portland (aside: they charged $ 15 «shipping and handling» for mailing us a crumpled piece of paper with the coupon info on it, when they could’ve just emailed a PDF of it for free).
After identifying a few properties that were available for our desired weekend, we began coordinating with a rep from OBV. We discovered then that there would be exorbitant markups beyond the value that we would get from the voucher. The voucher could only be applied towards the rent but not the taxes and fees. It seems that they keep the rental prices lower so that they can gouge you with the fees later. We found a nice home in Rockaway, the «rent» alone was $ 400, but the total charges came out to $ 673! This included a total of over $ 225 for just «fees» — cleaning fee, pet fee, damage waiver, and reservation fee — none of which they would let us apply the voucher towards. So we were only allowed to use $ 400 of the $ 500 coupon of the discount that we thought we should, but instead went out of pocket by an additional $ 273. The total cost of the rental was nearly 70% higher than the initial «rent.»
You might be thinking, why not book a place where you can apply the entire $ 500 voucher to rent? First of all, it was just my wife and I and two small dogs, the place we found for $ 200/​night was already more house than we needed. Secondly, a rental for $ 250/​night would’ve resulted in even higher fees. In other words: It would’ve cost us even more to use the full value of the voucher. If we booked a cheaper rental, then we would’ve been out that much more on the voucher value.
After searching through several more rental options on their website, we realized that all of the rentals were priced in a similar dishonest manner, and we felt like the half price deal was a bait and switch. We were stuck and the good deal we thought we were getting didn’t really exist. We tried to return the voucher for a refund and they would not allow it without charging us additional fees. We went back and forth with a different rep about how the deal and rental prices were misrepresented, we did not like our options and we just wanted to return the voucher, and they wouldn’t budge.
I will never rent from Oregon Beach Vacations again, I recommend going through Airbnb or other sites for a better deal.

OBV only apparently publishes positive reviews, as mine was never published — so, like other reviewers note, I would not trust the reviews on their properties as a source of reliable information. For the record, the house we rented was great! It was clean upon arrival, was right on the beach, and was close to the shops and restaurants. The only issues we had were with OBV in that they had a ridiculous number of rules that they constantly reinforced via every communication they sent — it became really annoying after a while. Charging visitors a very substantial cleaning fee, plus an additional pet fee, and then demanding that they wash their own towels and wash & put away their dishes prior to departure was very off-​putting. There was almost no hand soap and no shampoo when we arrived, despite OBV’s literature stating that those things are provided. Nonetheless, we still enjoyed our few days on the beach, in spite of OBV’s excessive focus on their many rules and regulations and expectation that we pay them for cleaning, as well as do our own laundry etc. before we left.

Shortly after booking a cabin on the coast through this company, we had a death in the family and had to cancel our travel plans. Despite the fact that I called in to cancel less than 24 hours after the reservation was made, OBV was unwilling to show any compassion by giving leeway on their $ 50 cancellation fee. I completely understand why these policies exist, but having had the property in our name for less than a day cost this company nothing, and the fact that this $ 50 fee was more important to them than showing some understanding during a difficult time evinces what kind of a company this is.

DON’T GIVE OREGON BEACH VACATIONS YOUR BUSINESS! My girlfriend and I spent over $ 500 on a house for the weekend at Oceanside, OR. The first night was her birthday and she had brought food for a special meal she had planned to cook. We spent half of that evening troubleshooting the stove and fireplace (that it was advertised to have, and had been looking forward to), both of which were not working. After placing several calls trying to reach the numbers they provided us we were told there was nothing that could be done, and they would send someone to investigate in the morning…
So after wasting one of our two nights trying to fix the house so that we could cook and enjoy the fireplace we were looking forward to, on a weekend that we were hoping to get AWAY from home maintenance and house repair, we had to wake up early the next morning to meet the handyman. Who they didn’t send. We received a call in the morning to go out side and look around for the gas tank in the rain and read to them the fill level, which was empty. They said they’d never had an issue at that house before…
When the serviceman came to fill the tank that afternoon he said it is the rental properties responsibility to keep an eye on the gas level so this wouldn’t happen, and he’d been to that exact property before during a previous rental for the same issue; EMPTY gas tank.
They assured us on the phone that they’d be discussing a refund as we spent one of our two nights there dealing with this issue, and the next morning, and were unable to enjoy the food we brought or the fireplace they’d advertised. After calling them three days after that weekend they sent an email telling us their corporate refund policy…$ 15!
I’ve never written an online review; on Unilocal or otherwise, and it takes a lot for me to complain about a disappointing experience or service, but this place is ridiculous! For the amount of money spent and the amount of inconvenience and disappointment we experienced it’s obvious that how they dealt with us, and what they offered as compensation, that they do not care about you or your experience on your vacation.

Got a gift certificate that was supposed to be used by December 31, and they won’t let me book it before that date for a stay in January. I realize that they have every right not to honor my request, but this lack of flexibility isn’t very user-​friendly, especially considering how slow January is for these bookings.
Newbie alert: Note that the properties that they rent do not allow pets, except for the ones that specify pet-​friendly. We had to pay a $ 50 fee to change to a house that allowed pets.
In the end, we had a nice stay at a well-​maintained property. The folks who work for Oregon Beach Vacations are really nice; the company policies, not so much.

Update: The review below was submitted on the Oregon Beach Vacations website but they did not publish it. Given that this happened to another reviewer, I would suggest that the company only publishes positive reviews on its website so its an unreliable source of information.
This past weekend I rented a condo in Nye Beach in Newport from Oregon Beach Vacations. The view was excellent and the condo was generally very nice. Three bathrooms, two bedrooms, nice kitchen, and almost everything worked. It could have been a five-​star review but a number of small things weren’t in order (one star deduction) and the service from the company was poor (second star deduction).
Things out of order: lights that didn’t work, window shades with broken cords, dry laundry that the cleaning staff left in the dryer, and most of all, poor communication and a non-​existent VCR and a non-​working DVD remote.
Unit was advertised to have both a VCR and DVD and I called before going to make sure they both were there. An employee assured me that was the case. But there was no VCR and the DVD remote didn’t work. I purchased new batteries, but that didn’t help. I wrote the company yesterday to ask for a refund of the $ 4.50 for the batteries and I was flatly refused per the contract. Poor advertising, poor employee information, and poor customer service. For $ 4.50 they could have had at least four stars. Nice unit, but a cheap company that doesn’t get what customer service means.

Overall my experience with OBV has been very disappointing. This is the second time my family has tried to book a stay at one of their properties and both times we have been called a couple of days before our trip to be told that the property we booked was no longer available. The first was having repairs and should not have been available in the system to begin with, the other was reported to have flooding. Instead of trying to accommodate us with an upgraded property or something to compensate for our loss we were offered an option of downgrading to homes that didn’t meet our needs and were not even comparable to the original homes we had booked. I would think that OBV would want to go out of their way to make sure customers were satisfied but that does not feel like the case at all. We are now stuck scrambling to find a place a few days before a holiday weekend and likely will not be successful. Needless to say, we will not be using their service again.

My guest review on the OBV website was not published. I guess they didn’t like what I had to say. The Sam Juan house in Rockaway Beach has a fantastic location, but I would not recommend it. I knew it was old, but that was okay as long as it was clean. Upon arrival I noticed the floors were dirty and I swept up a pile of long black dog hair, sand, and dust bunnies. There was sand on the coffee table, living room furniture, and crumbs on the dining table and chairs. The kitchen and appliances appeared clean. The bathroom sink and toilet appeared clean, but it was so old looking it was hard to tell. I didn’t want to take a shower without flip flops and it was difficult to turn on and off the water. The linens were clean, but the bedrooms are so uninviting. The house has a lot of potential, but I don’t think a thing has been done to it since the 50’s or 60’s. It was the first time that I went to the beach and couldn’t wait to get home. I might use OBV again, but not rely on their guest reviews. They did give me a 50% refund on the cleaning fee.

Would give ZERO if I could. We just stayed at «Peaceful Moments» this weekend. As another few Unilocalers mentioned, the location was really nice. HOWEVER… the home was not a «manufactured» home – it was a cardboard and metal 60s trailer. There were 5 rat traps around the property and live rats as well. The back door was unable to be opened. The stairs to the beach were gone, and there was nothing on the website about this. There were dangerous broken trees and piles of yard debris. The 60s drapes were falling down. There was hideous brown and orange furniture. There were holes in the carpet. The furnace cabinet was right behind the master bedroom and every hour, twice an hour, went BOOM, followed by ticking. We couldn’t sleep all night. I got a Portland Perks gift cert for this, and I have to say that PPerks is great and have responded to me. OBV responded with a nasty note saying they refused to refund any fees. We’ve rented beach places for years, and this is the godawful worst place we have ever been.

We stayed at their Gearhart Escape home.
Location was pretty decent, and as described. That is about all that was described properly.
The fenced backyard is barely fenced with part of it falling down.
Let me state I understand this is a rental and an older home BUT
The home sans the kitchen is in disrepair: The heating only works in one bedroom upstairs, so you must CRANK the heat to 85 downstairs in order to warm up the other rooms. You can not close the doors at night or you will freeze, so there isn’t privacy when multiple families are there. The upstairs main bath has MOLD smell everywhere. All the beadboard is dirty, cracked and coming off in parts. and the walls on the sleeping level are thinner than some of the «a» list coke whores. The home is also for sale (not like it will sell in its current state) but that could have been awkward if someone wanted to view it while we were there.
I would pass if I were you.

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