Nightmare VRBO Rental - Yellowtail Island Retreat - 2129 Yellowtail Drive in Marathon, FL 33050
Nightmare VRBO Rental - Yellowtail Island Retreat - 2129 Yellowtail Drive in Marathon, FL 33050
Booked this property for our family vacation, the week of Memorial Day 2026.
Day#1: At first, everything seemed fine, until my son stepped on a screw in the pool. We ultimately found 50+, in both the pool and driveway.
On the 1st night, we were getting ready for bed and realized there weren't any sheets on the Queen bed, only a quilt over a mattress protector. We searched the entire house; there were NO queen sheets anywhere. I remembered we had been left a key to the garage, so I went ahead and checked to see if, for some reason, they had sheets stored in the garage. I found a set, but they were for the king-sized bed, so I took them back down to the garage. We immediately received a call from Michelle (at 9:45 p.m.) telling us that we weren’t to be in the garage. I explained we had been left a key to it, and at that time, I explained our sheet situation, as well as all of the roofing screws we found in the driveway and pool. She agreed to bring us a set of sheets the next day when they came to pick up the garage key. She also said that they just had the roof replaced and she would send the roofers back out to clean up the following day (they didn’t).
Day #2: We waited until just before 5 p.m. to text her again, asking if she knew when she'd be by with the sheets. She claimed she didn't know that we still needed the sheets, even though our conversation had occurred through text and it was very clear. Ultimately, they did bring the sheets by after 8 p.m.
We went to bed, ready to put all that behind us, until midnight when we received a call from VRBO and messages from the host, informing us that we were being kicked out and that we were to vacate the property by 10 a.m.
Why? She claimed we didn’t meet the guest age minimum of 30…Our parties ages are 34, 40, 63, 63, and our 12-year-old son, which we told her upon booking.
As we were packing and looking for a new place to stay, she called the police on us TWICE! The officers informed us that she said she was watching us via the property cameras. SO WEIRD! We did get a full refund after sending screenshots to VRBO. Michelle and Larry are very shady hosts.
Do yourself a favor and skip past this one!
**Screenshots of communication with the hosts provided to back up our terrible experience because it sounds made up, but it is 100% true**
RENTER’S BEWARE of:
Yellowtail Island Retreat
2129 Yellowtail Drive
Marathon, FL 33050
(Hosted by Michelle & Larry)