Letter I sent to BBC after our return. This says it all.


Dear Banana Bay,

I am writing you to let you know of our experience during our stay at your Beachside Resort location. We stayed in Villa 3 which is advertised as sleeping accommodations for four. Upon arrival we did find that your accommodations seemed pretty much as advertised and located a convenient distance to the beach. However, the comfort level of Villa 3 left much to be desired. I must first say that most of us look forward to a vacation in a place where we can get plenty of rest and relaxation. A good nights rest is a top priority for travelers and vacationers. That said, I must tell you that the couches and fold out bed in Villa 3 are the absolute worst furniture we have ever been on. The main couch in Villa 3 is worn, stained, and broken. My wife and I tried to use the fold out bed so that we could allow our elderly parents to have the main bedroom. The fold out was so uncomfortable and worn that we were unable to use it (I would challenge the owners to spend even one hour on this bed). After the first nights attempt at sleep my wife actually had bruises on her back from the metal bars in the bed. We moved to the floor in an attempt at some comfort at 3 am. As an owner of businesses my self I would be embarrassed to put my clientele through an experience like this. The only possibility for getting any resemblance of sleep was to sleep on the couches or cushions on the floor. I have to admit that paying over $500.00 for two nights of sleeping on a couch and floor is unsettling and discouraging to say the very least. You have a decent little place in a convenient location but comfort and a good night of rest is not too much to ask for.

(In my letter I did not inclued the fact that the cooking pans were rusty, found a roach in the kitchen, and saw a large Rat by the pool.)

No response or refund given.

My husband and I just came back from our first trip to Siesta
Key Florida. We found the Banana Bay Club beachside on the internet and it looked like it had exactly what we wanted. what a wonderful delight to arrive there and find that indeed this was a perfect place for us. We stayed in the Tropical Apartment which was spacious, lots of windows, very clean and had a comfortable king size bed. It was on the second floor and had its own balcony overlooking the road on front, the bedroom window overlooked the pool. The pool was very large for the size of the resort and their was a very nice barbecue and eating area right beside it under cover, which we used for dinner every night. The owners Dave and Gina were very pleasant and helpful in directing us to restaurants and sites to see. It was only a very short walk to the most fabulous beach I have ever been to, which we walked every day and turns out to be about 10 kms to one end of the key and back again. It is also only a 10 min. walk to stores, bars, restaurant, post office and drugstore.

It was truly a delightful place to stay and we will be going back again. One important item to remember is that you are renting an apartment it is not a hotel room so there is no maid service or clean towels every day. This was fine with us, and they have laundry facilities right next to the pool, so if we needed clean towels we just did laundry while we were swimming.

I would highly recommend this to anyone who is looking for a smaller facility with friendly management and who doesn't require the services available at hotels but enjoys a smaller more initimate atmosphere.

Faye and Bill Halls

My husband and I have stayed on Siesta Key frequently for nearly 20 years as we visit family in Sarasota. We thought we'd try somewhere different recently and chose the Banana Bay Beachside - I guess I got the higher-rated Banana Bay Waterside confused with the Beachside because this place was almost a dump.

We stayed in Villa #7 (putting the name "villa" on it is a stretch). My husband called it the "Scratch & Dent" room. Indeed the room is large there is a (hard) 4-poster bed, but the tops of two of the posts are broken & cracked as if they'd been forced through the door. There is an armoire in which to hang your clothes that is splintered on the side of one of the doors and has a large hole inside. There is paint the same color as what is on the walls on the dresser mirror frame - as if they didn't bother moving it when they painted it. The doors to the outside were flimsy and had a large gap between the door & the frame - I think it wouldn't have taken much to get inside this room without a key. There also appeared to be termite damage or wood rot around the door frame.

There is no phone or clock in the room and the dishes in the kitchen are slim pickings. There's just enough for making coffee (there is a maker and a handful of filters) and having a bowl of cereal, and a few pots & pans, but I wouldn't plan on making too big a meal there. No ice maker or even an ice cube tray in the freezer. There was however a sponge and some dish soap and a couple trash bags.

The old bathroom is slightly renovated, however there is no diverter on the tub/shower, so when you struggle with the broken handle to get the water on, the shower comes on. So if you wanted to take a bath in the scarred bathtub you wouldn't be able to. There is also a very annoying high-pitched whine coming from the plumbing while you shower.

The deck is directly on the parking lot and offers two plastic chairs that are so oxidized they left a white chalky residue all over my clothing.

We stayed over the Christmas holiday for 3 nights and on Christmas morning apparently when I turned on the coffee maker, our neighbors were using the hairdryer, so a fuse blew taking out the power for both rooms. The box wasn't in either of our rooms, and no management available (we never saw anyone; the key was left in an envelope taped to the office door when we arrived), so my husband found the box around back and got the power back on.

The street is fairly quiet, and the beach is a short walk away, but the hotel is dog-friendly which is a plus for some and not so much for others - unless you don't mind two dogs barking in the room next door or dogs barking while you're sitting on the deck having coffee in the morning.

Maybe some of the other rooms are nicer, but I don't care to find out - I won't be staying there again - there are nicer places on Siesta Key. A lot nicer, especially for the money.

My husband and I just returned from staying at this property. I was a bit worried after some of the reviews and I voiced those concerns with one of the owners. I was told that most of the bad reviews were before the renovations. We stayed in Villa #7 for around $135 per night. We never saw the owners. Lisa just called the day after we got there (since we missed check-in) to make sure everything was okay. No one bugged us. It was very quiet. The Villa was nice and clean. We had no problems. The pool could have been cleaner. The beaches (except for Turtle) and riding through town, you get a wave of an aweful smell. My husband is a wastewater operator and has never smelled something that bad. It's like a mix of sewer and standing still water. We never could figure out what it was. A friend suggested when I got home that it may have been the red tide, but I am not sure. It in no way reflets the villa that we stayed in though. I would stay here again if there was no smell through the town. Next time we will be trying for something on the beach though as well.