We've been to Holden many times, and it was our first staying in an oceanfront place. Being on a more private section of beach was ideal with small kids (only wish the unusually cold weather hadn't prevented us from using the pool). The house had generous-sized bedrooms, plenty of space for an extended family, and the open dining/living space on the main floor was perfect for keeping an eye on small kids while all being in the same place. The downsides were few and pretty easy to navigate—and would be an easy fix for hosting future stays. Like the previous reviewer, we did encounter some roaches inside early in our stay but some all-natural/kid-safe roach spray seemed to handle the problem by midweek. One of the upstairs bathrooms didn't have hot water (the other 2 did, so I don't think it was simply the water pressure). And several of the heavy wooden chairs on the decks were broken (possibly during the hurricane the week before?) and should probably be removed if they can't be fixed. It would also be nice to have a little more glassware in the kitchen. We'd love to be back here because of what a joy it was to have essentially our own stretch of beach while getting easily to and from the house with small kids.

Beach is wonderful, gated community is nice. As a whole it is a nice place. There is several things that need attention. Hot water doesn’t always work in upstairs bathrooms, wear shoes on decking to prevent stubbing toes on nail heads and getting splinters, needs a good bug exterminator (we encountered several large roaches), several window blinds don’t function, mixer in kitchen does not work, several outdoor chairs were broken, deck posts broken, and the gate latch on the rear deck of house not working properly (may be cause of hurricane the week before so I understand if that’s the case). We were very happy to be able to vacation there with the hurricane the week before but for as much as that house cost to rent, some issues should be corrected.