Anyone ever use Brindley Beach for OBX beach house?

[Anonymous]

We have always used Twiddy but found some good properties on BB's website. I did read some not so glowing reviews of them on tripadvisor though so I am skeptical. Anyone use them within the last year or so?

[Anonymous]

We just booked with them -- well, my brother did. I know he's used them many times before (they go every year), and with so many options I doubt he'd go back to them if he had any problems.

I know, not a glowing review, but I've stayed in two houses managed by them and they were lovely.

[Anonymous]

I think we used them a couple years ago and were happy.

[Anonymous]

We rented from them last year, and used them again to rent for this summer. We had a couple minor issues with the house last year and they responded very promptly and professionally.

[Anonymous]

I've used brindley for the past three summers and have always had great houses and service. I rent several houses each summer and I always ask for Alice at brindley. She is super helpful and has great customer service skills....one thing that is lacking in a lot of businesses today!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think we used them a couple years ago and were happy.

us too

[Anonymous]

Brindley sucks. We had a horrible experience - had to call 4 times for service for major stuff. Bad customer service. The houses are not great either. Go with Twiddy or Beach Realty or whatever. Won't be using them again.

[Anonymous]

We had a bad experience with a subpar rental home from Brindley Beach this summer also. The home was very poorly maintained and it pretty much ruined our vacation. We have had very good experiences with Southern Shores, Carolina Designs and Twiddy over the past 20 years.

[Anonymous]

Use caution when renting from Brindley Beach. The company's Corolla office burned a few weeks ago and they do not seem to be taking up the slack in the Duck office. We are renting a house on Whalehead beach that has several issues. When we reported our problems the reinsert was that they would try to have someone fix them. Other rental companies have been more responsive and accommodating in the 11 years. We have been coming to Corolla.

[Anonymous]

Outer Beaches is a good realtor, my dad and stepmother have used them for over 10 years.

[Anonymous]

Recently, while looking for a Corolla area beach house for extended family members to rent at the same time my family was renting a different house I came across this thread and thought I might have a helpful point of view. I think Brindley Beach is the best of the several rental companies that I've used on the OBX. Over 20 yrs of renting beach cottages for our large family gatherings, mostly in Corolla, I've had a couple of horrid experiences and a few that made me wish I had rented somewhere else. But since I started renting from Brindley I have never had a significant problem. Minor ones sure. And in every case that I can recall Brindley's excellent maintenance guys did nice work of taking care of it in a quick and final way. Over the years and especially after my early horrid experiences with the other area rental companies I think I've learned a thing or two about renting a vacation house at the beach. Perhaps most importantly, learn that you get what you pay for. Don't for a second imagine that you are going to rent a comparatively very cheap cottage and have it turn out to be as good or as much fun as any of the higher priced places. Just look at the pictures in a rental catalogue or on Brindley's website and use a little common sense. If you can possibly manage it, rent an OCEANFRONT cottage. I repeat for the hard of hearing, OCEANFRONT!! The experience of sharing with your family all those things you'll doing be on vacation while actually having a taste of true beach lifestyle overlooking all the fascinating things happening on the ocean and easily meandering by private walkway to and from the beach is awesome. Have coffee/breakfast on the deck and watch the sun rise and the osprey dive or lunch overlooking surfers and beachgoers or have a cocktail/beer with friends and family and watch waves, dolphins, and pink setting sunglow light up the horizon. At night you get the amazing sights of seeing a red moon break the horizon and rise over the ocean or brilliant lightning flashes from storms far over the horizon. Times and things like these are all just the tip of the oceanfront beachlife iceberg. And if the house has a pool and spa, well the little ones will have and will remember seriously fun times on vacation with you lasting even as they grow to adulthood. (They might even invite you to join them when it's their turn to start arranging summer vacation trips.)

Probably of equal importance learn that a beach house is a more complex and more heavily used animal than your house back home. Probably everything about it is stressed more than your house. It exists in one of the harshest environments on earth, exposed to highly corrosive salt air, HVAC-killing high humidity & high temps (& winter freezing temps) and baking summer sun, strong rain and wind storms during summer and winter nor'easters. Further, there's the occasional hurricane that rips by. So, problems are going to develop. Get over it. Like sharks in the water, problems are best viewed as the minor nuisance they usually are and are just part of the experience of living on the beach. Several key things here: rule out any house build before the early 90's because materials and tech will not be modern enough; how much the owners can head off problems before rental season begins (many things can not be predicted and can only be dealt with as they happen....just like what happens with your own house); how well the rental company responds when problems occur. As I've said I think Brindley Beach is excellent. Some home owners are clueless and some are great. A sign of the great ones is to find a house that throughout has basic characteristics and set up of a good house ( ex. nice granite counters throughout, wood floors, tile kitchen and bathrooms, modern well equipped kitchen, many flat screen TVs, attractive furnishings, newer beds....really all common sense stuff to look for and to ask about if you can't tell from photographs).

Sometimes, unfortunately, some inconsiderate jerk may have rented the place and do damage or left a hard to rectify mess the week before your turn. No one has any control over that, but I have come to suspect that Brindley attracts a much better mannered class of renters. Having met many house cleaners, I know that they have a huge job. Some are good, some are very good, and some are OK at best. You can always tell which is which by what you see when you first walk through on arrival day. I expect a clean house. Period. It's their job, and I expect them to have done it well. I try to walk through with them, and if I see things I don't like I'll start a list and ask them to deal with it while I go looking for what else they should have done better. And if I find a maintenance issue during the walk through I tell them and I personally call Brindley Beach immediately. Since starting with Brindley I've mostly rented the same house each summer because I not only like it very much but I know what to expect when I arrive. This house has the same house cleaners assigned to it throughout its rental season. I can see why because it's an excellent team. Also, a team of house cleaners committed to the house makes sense because they will know the house very well and can more easily spot something damaged or out of place and do a better job of making thing right before I arrive. I believe that excellent houses will often have excellent cleaners assigned to them because the house owners will have made a point of it and will have chosen them personally. Owners of the house I have repeatedly rented have high standards and obviously work hard to try to make sure maintenance, cleaning, and other issues don't impinge on their renters' vacation.
If you would like to know if a house you're considering has a devoted house cleaning team call Brindley to ask. If it does and even you don't know anything else about the house that's an excellent sign you're going to end up happy with your choice.

[Anonymous]

We've had the best luck with Carolina Designs.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone ever stayed at the Norris Cottage, if so, what are your thoughts? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

We used Sun Realty. Lots of selection.

[Anonymous]

I would not use Brindley Beach Rentals again...we stayed at Palm Paradise in 2014 (when it was managed by Carolina Designs) and enjoyed our stay and we chose the same house in August 2016 and this time the house is dirty...there were bodily fluids on the blankets, and the place was barely cleaned prior to our arrival and the outside area was not cleaned at all. The trash cans were full. The counters were dirty. Additionally, the outdoor lights don't work so we cannot use the pool at night (they worked in 2014). The bbq does not turn on all of the way so we can only cook on 1/3 of it. They were very responsive but they did not fix fix anything. I would not use Brindley Beach Rentals again nor would stay at Palm Paradise on Four Seasons Road in Duck. NC