Client Review on Emerald Isle Realty, Inc.

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My family and I made our first ever group trip to Emerald Isle Beach in June 2017. We had the most amazing time together and hoped it would be something we would continue. When the patriarch of our family died unexpectedly 6 months later, we knew we must honor him and the love and joy we shared on our family trip so we booked a second family vacation at the same home on Emerald Isle Beach for June 2019 minus one. We booked both vacations with another rental company and we had such a positive first experience we had no reason to worry. Two days before our week vacation in June 2019, I learned that the house we had rented had been sold and the new home owner would continue vacation rentals but with a new management company. That's where Emerald Isle Realty comes in. I strongly believe in business reviews. I read them, consider them, use them in my decision making and most importantly, I write them. I would have never chosen EIR based off the reviews I have found here and my story fits alongside all of the other negative reviews. I will keep this as brief and factual as possible and just share the take home points of what I learned. My first and most important lesson learned is that you have no protection in the state of NC in the event something goes wrong with your vacation rental. (I filed a formal complaint with NCREC). There is a large part of me that has felt bad for EIR as they were handed a very difficult situation that was no fault of their own. It was how they handled the situation once it fell into their hands that matters. They declined to honor my rental contract but rather followed the instruction of their new homeowner in a small but important matter to my family. Their first instinct was to mislead me rather than remain honest at all times. Someone from their staff showed up to our property 5/7 days. I had advanced notice they were coming once. I requested no further work take place during our week stay but rather wait until we had checked out. This was supposed to be noted but apparently never made it very far as work resumed within the house 2 days later. Which leads me to communication. It is poor. This is not that surprising to me as I am well aware when you perform a root cause analysis after things go wrong it will almost always lead back to communication and its breakdown. The employees of EIR will value their days off and vacation more than yours. Here are some of the responses I received when I attempted to remedy issues in my week and after: "Since I am out of the office tomorrow I am copying our customer service team on this email so we can confirm this one way or the other prior to your arrival on 6/8." "Please note that I will be out of the office until Sunday 6/23 but feel free to call my cell if you still have questions or concerns. I will not issue the refund until I return." And my favorite- "I wanted to let you know that (owner) is out of the country and I will not be able to discuss this with him until we are able to meet; which will be on or around 9/6/19. " EIR is very good at apologizing and when a company is good at apologizing it means they issue too many of them. Businesses that are truly customer focused and quality driven do not have to apologize this much. And profit is heavily valued. Our family rented "Sea Worthy" for $3000 less than what it is now renting for with EIR during the same week.The two stars are to acknowledge that I received a refund in my requested amount as well as a small voucher to use on a future rental with EIR. The second star is for the owner and her personal letter that she attached to the refund. Her words were full of truth, sincerity and human connection and I am grateful she took the time to reach out. I sure wish my concerns would have made it to her desk during my week stay. I truly believe my vacation would have benefited from her guidance, integrity and business sense had she been involved sooner.