Manatee Manor: Exclusive Beachfront Retreat with Gulf Views

Rating Details: The property manager was very helpful. The vacation rental was spotless. I was very happy with the location. I was very satisfied with the condition of the vacation rental. Overall, I recommend this vacation rental. Reviewer Comments: This place was great! Walk out onto the beach is great. It was going through some updates, but the place overall was in good shape and was spacious.

Rating Details: The vacation rental was spotless. I was very happy with the location. I was very satisfied with the condition of the vacation rental. Overall, I recommend this vacation rental. Reviewer Comments: My wife and I had a fantastic stay in manatee manor. Clean and nicely appointed. Well stocked kitchen. Great stretch of beach

The house is more updated than the photos show. The house needs shower handles updated because we were lucky to get them to turn on. The men who manage the rental were beyond rude. The golf carts are complete trash we broke down more than we drove. We plugged them up every time we parked them and still ended up stranded daily. We ended up leaving a day early because we were so over it! The location is great but don't plan on exploring the island with their golf carts. Also, the beds and pillows are awful. The sheets are stiff and the pillows are flat and haven't been replaced in ages I'm sure. Also they barely had any extra blankets. For the price of this rental you should at least be able to be comfortable.

Rating Details: The property manager was more than helpful. The vacation rental was spotless. I was very happy with the location. I was very satisfied with the condition of the vacation rental. Overall, I recommend this vacation rental. Reviewer Comments: We had a great time with regards to the home, the beach, and laid back activities. The home was recently remodeled, was clean and inviting. We were looking for a quiet beach and we certainly found it. We will likely return to the island in the future. The biggest negative by far was the golf cart experience. 5 carts in 5 days. The first two would not hold a charge and left us sit after traveling about a mile. The next one had headlights but the switch was broken and we had to use a flashlight to get back home. The next one had a wheel bearing that went out. We ended our stay with one that moved and had lights so we didn’t complain about the grinding noise in the back. I don’t know what you need to do to get a newer cart, but these were old.

Spacious house right on the beach. It is closer to the beach then the pictures show, which was great. The sunsets are right I front of the house on the water, and they were spectacular! The house is in the process of a remodel and with new furniture. So by next summer this house will be even more beautiful.

The property is beautiful & right on the beach! That being said, there were constant problems during our stay: upstairs & downstairs a.c. went out, a rather large leak in a downstairs bedroom, the golf cart wouldn’t stay charged (& you need it to get to the pool/restaurants), the outlet for the cart was burned/sparking, wood rot on outside railings, no cable tv, etc. The maintenance man, Jeremiah, was incredible & prompt!!! I wish I could say the same for the property management team. Hours would go by before we heard back from them! Rarely did you get someone to answer the phone. This was our 1st time at this resort & probably our last because of the management. The restaurant & maintenance people were great!

We had a great time! Location on beach is the best. Great views!

We will surely return for another vacation . North Captivia is the place to go for relaxation and family time.

We thoroughly enjoyed staying at Manatee Manor. The service getting to the island was fabulous and flawless. Check in was a breeze. The home itself is spacious and comfortable. We did have a few glitches. Some outdoor chairs had fallen apart in the elements, the septic developed a definite order on day 2. The maintenance staff did arrive within 2 days to tape an outdoor pipe up. Our golf cart charger stopped working, leaving us stranded for a day. For the four of us, we had plenty of well used cookware but if a larger group is there it might be a problem. Coffee maker was for 2 cups. We did find another in the closet the was for 4 cups and just added that. The bathtub in the downstairs bedroom stopped up and wasn't noted to the end of the vacation. No outdoor stair lights toward the beach. All barbecuing was done in the complete dark as there were no outdoor lights at all. Even the most extensive turtle nesting beaches in the world have some sort of lighting. The screen door for the master bedroom came off during the stay (very windy conditions). Outdoor furniture at the crows nest was old and worn. The screen door for the crows nest did not latch and would blow open with the breeze and had to be tied shut. With the maintenance issues, they request you report any problems within 24 hrs. All of these issues were not immediately noted and some just the day before check out. Overall the house was in a great location and suited us well. We just went with the flow. It does need some TLC though. One other word of caution, make sure you get insurance for the home/golf cart. Someone hit our golf cart while we were in Over the Water for dinner. Luckily insurance covered the damage. We will be returning to North Captiva and but might try another home.

TL:DR: Loved the house, but would probably never stay at a NCIC property again. Our party of seven (four adults, three kids) rented Manatee Manor for a week over new years. The house itself is very nice, unbeatably close to the beach, and very nicely laid out for groups (each bedroom has its own bathroom, for example). Unfortunately, the service from NCIC left a LOT to be desired, to the extent that it pretty much derailed the first three days of our week-long trip. First of all, it took over two hours to get our luggage and bags after we arrived on their ferry, so we started our vacation with three little ones losing their minds because it was 9pm and they hadn't had any dinner--and we couldn't leave to get dinner at the restaurant because we had to wait around for the bags to arrive. When they finally came, all the breads were smashed and the frozen stuff had thawed. Awesome. The even bigger problem was the water in the house. Our first morning there, the showers didn't work. No water came out when we tried to turn them on, and the water from the sinks smelled like straight bleach. The one load of laundry we were able to run the first night came out literally bleached, just from the water. Called management the first morning and was told someone would come around to look at it. Waited around; no one came the entire day. Called both offices again in the evening and also emailed; got no response. By morning, there wasn't even water in the sinks and the toilets wouldn't flush either. (Seven unshowered people in a house with no flushing toilets: not exactly paradise.) Called both offices AGAIN, and also sent one of our party over to the office, and then waited around again all morning; finally a guy arrived around lunchtime. When he came, he said, Nobody told me about it until this morning or I would have come over yesterday. (?!!) He got the water running again, but it was still so chlorinated that our teeth were stinging and another load of laundry got bleached, so we had to call AGAIN the next day and have someone come figure out the chlorination issue. As yet, no one has made any offer to make up for the first half of our trip being riddled with problems. No partial reimbursement; not even a free drink at the bar. Problems happen, but when they do, I expect it to be made right. And no running water is a pretty big problem. There were smaller things too but, alas, I'm out of space to type.