Yes, this is an excellent hotel and we stayed there from June 22 - June 25, 2007. The beach was great except for the jellyfish. We have stayed at this hotel for the last 4 years and have been repeat customers and enjoyed the stay. For the recent stay in June, I also booked a reservation there for July 12 - July 16, just in case the June 22 - June 25 date did not work out. Today, is July 13, and I got a call this morning that reminded me that I forgot about the reservation. The call @ 7 AM was wanting to know if we were coming...(Don't know why in the world the hotel could not have contacted us via cell, email, home phone, etc. prior to this morning) Yes!! I forgot to cancel. It is now 12:30 PM on July 13 and this hotel will be charging 1 full nights stay plus tax ($209). I asked for a reduced amount; however, I am told the General Manager of this hotel is strict and makes no exceptions and that is the policy-$$$$$$$. In today's era, I guess customer loyalty is no longer considered to be important when running a business. Hey, it was my oversite, I admit, but two $100 bills with no value to me is hard to swallow. So, please cancel your reservation if you are not planning to be at this hotel @ the requested time. As other reviews on TripAdvisor and on Yahoo have indicated, the management of this hotel is not customer oriented and are not willing to make exceptions out of the norm if things do not go right for you.

Just returned from a weeks stay at the Island House hotel.
I booked this hotel because of it's ratings on tripadvisor.com.
The staff was very friendly and booking was simple over the
phone but this hotel needs some serious updating. Everything
was fairly clean but very OLD and outdated. Our kids found it
funny that this hotel has actual KEYS; not the key cards that
have been around for many years. The beach and views are
absolutely beautiful; the main reason we travel to the beach
every year. The maid service is TERRIBLE. I book a hotel instead of a condo because I want someone to change my
sheets and bring fresh towels every day. We waited around
every day for clean towels and didn't get our bedding changed
until I finally after three days pulled everything off the bed and put it in a pile by the door. The maid actually asked me if they
were dirty!!! If I wouldn't have been there she probably would have put them back on the bed! We never once got new soap
or shampoo; I had to go to Winn Dixie and purchase a bar of
soap myself. I had to hunt down towels on a daily basis. I even
asked at the front desk and they said they would have to call
housekeeping. After waiting another hour I had to go find housekeeping myself and she only had three towels and no
washcloths.....how many rooms are in this hotel???????????

The area is very nice. Highway 59 out of Gulf Shores has
about everything. Tanger Outlet (nicer than Myrtle Beach's),
Outback Steakhouse, Waterville USA, The Track (very
overpriced; $5-$7.50 per ride) etc. You have to eat at Lambert's;
it's a hilarious interactive eating experience and tons of food.
It has a two hour wait at all times but well worth it.

Overall, a very nice area to visit but we will not be staying at
the Island House again. For $219 a night I expect my room
to be cleaned up daily without ME asking!

My husband and I spent a couple days in early May at the Island House Hotel. It was a quick getaway, and the weather was perfect on the beach. The Island House was pretty nice, and very clean, but needs a bit of updating. For starters, the double doors to the parking lot and beach are not automatic; they have crash bars, which means that while toting luggage and beach gear, you've got to have a hand free to hold open the door. Once in the room, the view WAS beautiful as promised, BUT the mattress was horribly uncomfortable...you could see the sag in the middle as soon as you walked into the room. In this day and age, there's no excuse for an old, squeaky spring mattress anymore. The only other complaint is that there were no "Do Not Disturb" signs to hang on the door, so while trying to sleep in on vacation, we were awakened at 8am each day by housekeeping, and they wouldn't quit knocking until we got up and opened the door to tell them that we were still in the room. A small oversight, yes, but for that reason, we won't be going back to the Island House the next time we head to beautiful Orange Beach.

We haven't been to Orange Beach in about 10 years, but our last time there we stayed at the Perdido Beach Resort. After reading the recent (not-so-great) reviews of PBR, however, we opted for Island House instead... GREAT decision. We checked in around 6PM but were told the room wasn't ready due to some intensive cleaning. No problem - Paul at the front desk upgraded us to a penthouse suite! He also recommended Geno's Fresh Catch (right across the street) for dinner, which was EXCELLENT. Charlie, the umbrella guy at the beach, could not have been nicer or more attentive. And Pat in the restaurant was super friendly... keeping my mother's coffee cup filled! Even the porters were extra nice - reminding us to check the room carefully before we left. The beach has been widened since our last visit... and the sugar white sands were just gorgeous. The staff were exceptionally nice and the property was well-maintained. I will definitely stay at Island House during my next trip to the Flora-Bama coast!