I'm often asked this question, that’s why I’ve measured the distance several times, and from years of pacing off yardage on the golf course I can confidently say it is100 yards from our property to the beach walkover. For my wife it is 120 regular steps. Why measure it to the beach walk over? Because there are NO houses actually down on the beach. No matter where you stay you’re going to have to get to a beach walkover, and not all gulf front houses have their own walkover. So to me, the walkover is the starting point, the level playing field so to speak, for how close you are to the beach.
Q. How do I get to the beach?
Our Florida beach house rental is on the NORTH side of 30-A. There is a cross walk at our corner and sometimes the cars will stop for you. We'll let our 11 year old take our 6 year old across, but not the 6 year old by himself. From there it is a short block to the Andalusia Street beach walkover. If you look at the photo from our tower, the road directly below is 30-A, the little white copula between the brown roof house and the white 2-story house is the walkover. We are closer to the beach than 90% of all the houses at Seaside, and closer than any single-family home at Watercolor.
Q. We’re looking for a Florida beach house rental for a week in July. What kind of “rate” can you give us?
Summer is our busiest season and we are typically booked 100% from mid-May through August at the posted rate, so we rarely discount any summer weeks. However, there may be a time when someone has cancelled a week and we need a last minute booking. If you look at our beach house rental calendar and the next week is open and you can make it at the last minute, give us a call or email us and I’m sure we can work something out.
Q. We’re looking to book a month in July. What kind of “rate” can you give us for that length of stay?
As I said in the previous answer we are typically booked 100% from mid-May through August at the posted rate. There is no cost savings to us, the owners, for having one family for a month or four families 4 different weeks. The rate would be the posted Summer Rate
Q We're a family of 4 and don't need the guest house. Can we get a break on the rate if we don't use it?
No. The main and guest houses are connected by the second floor "widow's walk" AND the back stairs to the pool and feel very much like a connected unit. We do not rent the guest house as a separate unit, nor do we give any breaks for not using it.
Q. What are the sleeping arrangements, how many people can your beach house rental sleep?
The maximum number of guests is 10. Here’s how we would imagine everyone sleeping.
Master Suite: 2 people in the king bed
2nd Floor Bedroom: 2 people in the queen bed
1st Floor Bedroom: 1 person in EACH twin bed (total of 2)
Guest House: 2 people in the Queen bed
Guest House: 1 person on the extra large sofa
Tower Room: 1 person on the futon.
Q My elderly parents are coming with us. Will they be able to walk down the stairs to the beach?That all depends on what kind of shape they’re in. My 86 year old mother-in-law made it down to the beach several times last Thanksgiving and loved it. On the other hand, my 63 year old sister-in-law who has arthritis in her knees can’t make it down and up the stairs. We just drove her 2 blocks east to another beach pavilion which has a wheelchair ramp and she made it down just fine.
Q. We would like to book Saturday to Saturday and noticed you are a Sunday to Sunday house. Will you make an exception?
No. Most of the beach house rentals on 30-A are either Saturday to Saturday, or Sunday to Sunday. When we first started renting our old Sea Grove Beach rental home our rental agent already had too many Saturday to Saturday houses, so we were made a Sunday to Sunday house. Once you’re on a Sunday to Sunday schedule it’s pretty hard to change for two reasons. One, it’s hard to sell the 6 day week (Sun – Fri) that would precede a schedule change, and two, trying to squeeze in an extra house cleaning for a crew that’s trying to turn 4 or even 5 houses would be impossible. I must admit, I prefer getting away Sat – Sat, or better yet Fri – Sun. So when we come down and our own Florida rental home is booked back to back, we just stay at the Inn at Watercolor, http://www.watercolorinn.com/ for a night or two. It’s about the same nightly rate as Shutters, but with much less room as you’re staying in a hotel.
No. Here is the year round policy from our Rental Agreement: Shutters is strictly a family rental home. We do not rent to students or anyone under the age of 25 unless they are accompanied by at least one (1) parent for every two (2) children under the age of 25. The parent(s) must be staying at Shutters for the duration of the rental. This does not include being accompanied by an Aunt, Uncle, friends parents or older sibling, only a parent of the child under age 25. Any guests making reservations under false pretenses will be removed from the unit by our Property Management and the County Sheriff and will lose the remainder of their rent plus full security deposit. Underage drinking or drug use will not be tolerated at any time, even if the parents are present. Any evidence of illegal drug use or underage drinking will be meet with the county Sheriff and immediate removal from the property, loss of remaining rent and security deposit.
No. There are many houses that specialize in weddings or "Events", and will charge a higher weekly rate, plus an event charge, plus a higher security deposit. We are strickly a family rental and do not host weddings or wedding parties, even if the wedding is somewhere else. This is because after every wedding reception, that party moves somewhere else. We can not take the liability that it moves to Shutters.
For the privacy and security of our current guests we do not give out the address in advance. We have in the past, and had complaints by our guests of people up on the porch pearing in through the windows. What you see here on our website is EXACTLY as it is at Shutters. Go to the video pages of our site, you will be walking through Shutters. Go to the Guest Book pages and read our guests comments. This is an beautiful, well appointed house, on the NORTH side of 30-A, 1/2 mile from Seaside. Once we have recieved your full payment and approximately one week before your arrival we send a PDF with the adress of our property management company, and the address and directions to Shutters.
We're worried about your little ones too. That's why we've installed magna locks on the gates to the pool. They can't stop every kid from getting in the pool, but they'll stop most under the age of 6. By the way, the pool has a fence all around it both for privacy and security. The pool depth is 3 feet in the shallow end, 6 feet in the deep end.
Q. What do we need to bring?
We supply the linens, bath towels, bar soap, dishwashing detergent, salt and pepper, paper towels and toilet paper. I would recommend bringing:
Shampoo
Beach towels
Beach chairs
Cooking spices, aluminum foil, Baggies etc.
Pool toys or floats
Q. Where is Shutters and Seagrove Beach?
Please look at this area map page. If you’re familiar with the area, or you’ve been to Seaside, we’re about 1/2 mile east of Seaside on CR 30-A.
Q. How do we get to Shutters and where do we pick up the keys?
Once you have made a booking with us and we’ve received your final payment and the signed rental agreement I will send an email with an attached .pdf which explains how to get to our Florida beach house rental agent and to Shutters. For the privacy of our current guests and their security we don’t give out the address to Shutters until we have received you full payment and security deposit.
Q. How do I make a payment with my Visa card using Paypal?
Go to PayPal.com and register. It’s fast, easy, extremely secure, and best of all free to you the payee. Just follow the directions on their site. The money will be charged to your credit card. The email address you will use to send money on PayPal is: michael@masonhouse.com
Q. I’m more comfortable sending a check, can’t I just do that?
We will accept a check, although we think PayPal is much easier for everyone. If you choose to send a check, we must receive the full payment, PLUS the $500.00 security deposit 14 days prior to your arrival. We will then cash the check for BOTH the payment and security deposit and make sure the check has cleared before sending you the information on key pick-up. This way you are out an extra $500 until the unit has been cleaned and inspected for damage. At this point most people figure it’s easier to sign up for Paypal than to be out an extra $500 bucks for a month
Q I see the beach house rental agreement say’s “damage beyond normal wear and tear” Could you explain what that means?
We take damage on a case by case situation. Accidents happen. A glass breaks, a kid spills a juice box. We know this because the same things have happened to us too. However, when we deduct money from your security deposit, it's usually for a more serious accident where permanent damage has occurred. We then hire a handyman to repair the damage or replace that item and deduct that amount (with no mark up) from your security deposit. Here are some examples of when we've deducted money from a security deposit. Pulling out a towel rack and having to repair the drywall and repaint the wall, or replace the towel bar, replace 4 missing pool chairs, repair a chunk out of the fiberglass shower, replace the tupperware. In most of these cases the guests were charged $100 or less. There ARE times when we charge more. This is when guests blatantly disregard the rules of no smoking in the house, or bringing pets, or cramming 15 people in the house. In those cases we deduct the ENTIRE security deposit.
Our philosophy on running Shutters.
Before we were owners we were renters, just like you. Over the years we’ve stayed in some great places and some pretty bad ones. Houses where all the furniture is threadbare, the floors are trashed, none of the flatware matches, and there’s not enough cookware to even marinate some meat or toss a salad. WE CAN’T STAND THAT! We vowed from day one, never to let that happen with Shutters. Today a full 30% of each rental goes toward maintenance. Our cleaning and linen cost alone is $280 per rental. Of course we could use a cheaper service, and to start with we did, but after a month’s worth of rentals with the old service there was almost as much sand under the bed as there was at the beach. We changed to the best independent cleaning service on 30-A. It costs us a lot more money out of each rental, but we feel there are two things you need to do in a rental house. Keep it booked, and keep it cleaned.
Each year we escrow over five thousand dollars toward maintenance. Some years that money goes toward new furniture, other years it goes toward painting and upgrades. Here is just a partial list of the things we’ve improved over the last couple years and what will be done in the next two:
2002: Put in gas service.
Installed heavy duty gas pool heater
Bought new deck furniture for tower.
Pressure washed house.
2003: Sanded, stained and sealed all decks.
Built outdoor garbage can holder.
Bought deck furniture for outside master bedroom.
2004: Purchased new pool furniture
Repainted the entire exterior! (Whew that was enough for several years)
