Oceanfront Beach House with Jacuzzi, BBQ, Bicycles ! in Manhattan Beach

Our 2nd time staying at The Strand House!

Kathy (California)
Review submitted: November 29, 2012   Date of arrival: November 20, 2012

Thank you for opening up your home - we enjoyed our stay tremendously!

I made Thanksgiving dinner there and brought most of the food down from the Bay Area, the kitchen worked very well to feed my family and a few friends on Thanksgiving.

The hot tub is a big plus because my kids surf and needed to warm up after being in the ocean.
The gas grill is very important to the way we cook.
Bikes are good although we did not use them this time.

The new code/lock and no keys is very good - I worried about losing the keys last time.

The four big beach towels were great this time - not sure if you had them two years ago.

Kitchen dishes/supplies were about right for our family of 6.

Washer/dryer is great to have.

Beds were very comfortable and the sheets were comfortable since the night air was cool.

The chairs and bar on the outside porch are so inviting - the kids did homework, ate and relaxed out there a lot.

The large TV was great for watching college football and movies.
Bocce ball was nice to have - don't think that was available two years ago.

Of course, being right on The Strand is amazing - the ocean is so beautiful


Possible changes:
1.With three kids in college and one in high school, the kids prefer to sleep separately. So if you ever need to replace the sofa in the room where the bikes are stored, to replace it with a daybed would be good. We did see the air mattress and I also brought one down - but did not use them. One son slept on the living room sofa with sheets.
2. Netflix? We wanted to start watching Christmas movies like "Elf" and assumed it would be on. Possibly having a movie subscription would be nice but not necessary.

Again, thank you for opening up your home to us - it is an experience that I would not have ever expected our family to have and now we've done it twice!

Recommended for: age 55+, families with young children, families with teenagers, girls getaway, sight seeing, romantic getaway

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Helpful votes: 3 / 3

Look elsewhere!

Jane (Pleasanton, Ca)
Review submitted: November 12, 2012   Date of arrival: August 29, 2012

We stayed here back in August, and my husband just reminded me I never wrote a review!

The positives: The location is what's great about this house. MB is a cool city w great restaurants & shops. The "strand" is awesome, we took walks down to the pier everyday and loved enjoying the beautiful ocean views. The house is located right in front of the beach, but the pictures are a bit misleading in that there is a parking lot between the house and the beach. The photos make it look as if the house is right on the beach. This is not a terrible thing, but just wanted to point it out as it was something I didn't realize till we arrived.
Negatives:
The layout of the house is very cramped, chopped up, and weird. There is not a great place to hang out in a big group as the "living room" is oddly L-shaped, and you can't really enjoy the views while sitting on the couch or watching TV. Again, I feel the pictures are misleading because you can't quite grasp how odd the layout is from the photos.
The house is very cheaply furnished. Most of the furniture I recognized from Ikea. The kitchen was builder-grade at best. The floors were the cheapest laminate known to man.
When we arrived, the house was absolutely FILTHY. I have 2 children (a toddler, and a baby who was crawling at the time) so maybe I noticed more than the average person, but the first day we got there, I looked at my babies hands and knees and they were black from the filth on the floors. This really freaked me out, so I started wiping up and sweeping and the more I looked, the more dirt, dust, and grime I found. There were dishes in the kitchen that were dirty (they were put away as if clean, but when we got them out to use them, they were clearly greasy/dirty.) This was the deal breaker for me. I was pretty pissed off, because we had to pay a cleaning deposit! Either the owners are trying to take advantage by collecting a cleaning deposit and not getting the place cleaned, or they have the WORST cleaners on the planet.
To sum up, I felt that the pics and description were purporting the house to be something that it simply wasn't. If this was my place, and I was being honest, I would call it a beach bungalow and charge on the low end of the properties in the area. It could be a good fit for the right crowd, just know what you're getting into. However, the lack of cleanliness was absolutely INEXCUSABLE and is the reason why I would never recommend this place to anyone. Sorry, peeps, look elsewhere.

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Helpful votes: 7 / 7

We will definitely be back!

MaryAnn (Brecksville, Ohio)
Review submitted: April 26, 2012   Date of arrival: April 14, 2012

We certainly enjoyed our stay at your lovely rental. Your quick
response to the issues we had was appreciated. We enjoyed the
beautiful sunsets and the beach and Strand being so accessible. Also
the hot tub was a real plus. We all said that we would love to
return. Thank you.~~~MaryAnn

Recommended for: age 55+, families with young children, families with teenagers, sight seeing, romantic getaway

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Helpful votes: 2 / 2