This was a wonderful place, coming back here next yr for vacation, I would recommend this area to those thats never been. Love Jamaica beach, 4th time to Galveston, will be here for the 5th, ect...♡♡♡

We generally take the extended family (3 households totaling 6 adults and 5 children) away for a few days every summer. Galveston is usually our destination.On May 25, 2020, we reserved two condos in Galveston for this purpose. One was through Sterling Realtors and the other through Ryson,. We were booked from July 2-5 in a large condo development.At this time, the pandemic was still only 525 new cases reported in Texas on May 25th, so we felt fairly safe in this booking. But as time went on, the virus raged. The daily new cases and fatalities continued a steady climb. This all changed on June 16th when there was a spike of 4,406 new cases. There was continuing speculation that the Governor would declare another lockdown or enact other restrictions.We have compiled a graph from a Coronavirus blog to illustrate the conditions when relative to our decisions.On July 2nd, the following headline gave us serious concern:Inside a Houston hospital partly transformed into a coronavirus specialty unit, one doctor says he expects to reach capacity in the next 14 days.On the same day:Gov. Greg Abbott requires masks statewide to fight COVID-19, limits size of gatherings.On July 3rd, the City of Galveston announced beaches closed for the 4th of July weekend. Monday June 29th, Claire flatly stated “they would have done that by now if they were going to.” All indicators pointed to closures.Based on rapid growth of Covid, cancellation of the annual parade and likely impending beach closures, we contacted Sterling and Ryson by phone on June 29th to cancel our reservations .Ryson said if they could re-rent to property they would give us a full refund. They called the next day to say they had refunded our money.When we called Sterling, Claire was adamant that not only would the city certainly not close the beaches, but even if she could re-rent the property, she would still keep our money. This goes far beyond pure greed.We told Claire of Rysons offert. Her response was “were not as big as Ryson.”On July 1st we received a bulk checkout reminder email about the booking, so we emailed Claire to ask why we were receiving this in light of cancelling two days before:Claire informed us we had to cancel in writing. She never mentioned this before.We sent her an email of cancellation on July 1st. We received confirmation immediately.Claires position was that the contract we signed allowed for no cancellation refunds within 30 days of the booking date. Our position is that the conditions of Galveston would NOT be anything like we had anticipated, since after we booked, the 4th of July parade was cancelled and the beaches closed.Claire continued to maintain that even if she rebooked the property with someone less inclined to stay out of a hospital, she would still keep our money. We feel Coronavirus extenuating circumstances should enable us to get a refund. No one anticipated this, and a pandemic is not covered in the contract. We feel since these are not normal conditions, that we are entitled to a refund. Claire refuses to budge. We requested a voucher for future stay and she refused, saying she didnt even know if she would have that property in the future. We feel this is irrelevant. We would stay somewhere else in order to use our credit. She wont budge.Sterling contract excerpt:CANCELLATIONS AND REFUNDS:Cancellations within 30 days of arrival: The total rental fee plus all taxes, fees, and applicable travel insurance premium will be forfeited. ...Cancellations more than 30 days of arrival: Guest will be charged the non-refundable $75 reservation fee, $150 cancellation fee, and applicable travel insurance premium.Since Claire refused to compensate us in any way and insisted on keeping all $1,798.38 or our money, we disputed the charge with our credit card company.Needless to say, if Sterling Realtors had the last available accommodation in Galveston, we would NEVER use them again.

We rented from Sterling and then purchased a property from them on the West End. The rental program is run very efficiently (we put our home in their rental program) and the selection process they guided us through to find the perfect property for us was very professional. These are seasoned West End residents who know the ins and outs of what to buy and where. Be aware of the challenges regarding particular locations, insurance, taxes and insurance - their expertise and knowledge in these areas was invaluable. Many thanks to Sterling Realtors and Rentals.

Luxury like but also fells like home

We stayed at Coastal Sea rental condo #101. Upon entering coastal sea it smelled like dirty socks. The carpets were in horrible conditions. Stains all over, even food stains in the bedroom, and food still on the wall. There were little bugs along the baseboards, counters, and tables. Multiple people received bug bites wether this is from sleeping on the mattress or sitting on the furniture.This coastal sea condo needs to be deep cleaned, sprayed for bugs, and carpets replaced before they can justify charging people to stay here again. In all our travels this is by far the worst place we have ever stayed and we will never recommend to anyone.We paid $950.29 for two nights in this place!!!!!! It is disheartening that they would not do a thorough walk of this place and come to the same conclusion before you even rent the place.

Made plans for a beach wedding in Galveston based on a phone conversation with Claire, who at the time actually sounded excited about helping us with planning a wedding reception at their Beachsiders location. At the end of the conversation, I asked her how to reserve it, and she said to just reserve it on the website, and I did as instructed. I then made other reservations with the wedding event planners, etc and sent out save the date wedding announcements. Since that time, I have called, left voice mails, and sent personal emails as well as emails through the Sterling Realtors website with no response in 3 weeks. I just recently received an automated email stating Sterling Realtors cancelled my reservation. My plans for a lovely beach wedding close by with a reception at their beach house are now a huge mess. :(

Dont forget anything. No customer support here - very uncooperative. We forgot some items when we stayed on the beach for a long weekend. Sterling Realtors didnt return calls for days. Finally when the items were found - Sterling Realtors refused to mail them to us!. They couldnt be bothered. Finally some very gracious friends were able to pick them up - but they only had a window of a few hours because Sterling Realtors couldnt manage any other time. What a two week hassle because they couldnt put it in the mail. As to our stay - the place is a bit run down I wouldnt recommend it.

Booked through Sterling and stayed at the Diamond Beach. Would recommend both for future trips. Excellent pool area, could not have had a better stay.

Great place!!! ♡♡♡

Please please read all the fine print before booking. My mom impulsively booked a property then cancelled and it cost $225. VRBO refunded fees, Sterling makes money this way.

We have used several realtors in Galveston and Sterling is by far the best. We get to meet them face to face, they live on the island and will respond immediately to issues(our cable went out, we called them, and it was fixed in an hour). We have had other family member rent thru them and they too said, what a nice couple.

My husband and I rented a condo through Claire at Sterling Realtors for our Honeymoon last weekend. The staff and condo at diamond beach was amazing! However, going through Claire at Sterling Realtors almost ruined our weekend. First off, she provided the wrong address in the directions email, so we were stuck driving up and down the seawall searching for the condo. After finally giving up on finding the condo, we parked our car at her office (we needed to drop our car off the night before our stay since our chauffeur for our wedding night was going to drop us off at the condo in another car the next day).We never got a correct address from Claire or Sterling Realtors. We only got a correct address after calling the staff at diamond beach, completely separate from sterling realtors, who actually commented that several people who rent through sterling realtors get lost on their way to their condo. Then instead of Claire apologizing or admitting her mistake when we confronted her with the issue, she insisted that it was somehow our fault because she has rented out over 700 condos in her career and that she has tried telling google to fix their directions to the condo. Really?! She was blaming EVERYONE else instead of simply accepting her mistake.Then the real icing on the cake was when we asked to be reimbursed for a taxi ride to go pick up our car at her office (remember, we dropped our car off at her office the night before when we couldnt find the condo and we were now at the condo after our wedding chauffeur dropped us off) and she replied NO ABSOLUTELY NOT! I was shocked! So long story short, we were stuck paying a $40 taxi ride out of our own pocket to go pick up our car from her office when she was the one who provided the wrong address in the first place.Dont let this review scare you away from Diamond Beach Condos, but whatever you do DONT rent a diamond beach condo through Sterling Realtors!

Very unfortunate experience with Sterling Relators and Claire and Chris Downing. Our friends rented from them and we joined them for the weekend in Galveston. We left a couple of items at the condo we rented...our bad. We tried contacting them and they refused to respond to us: we fould out later they only respond directly to the renters...okay...but send us an email. then they refused to mail back our items telling our friends that they would have to drive back from Houston to pick up 3 items. Even though these folks were from Houston, they would do nothing to cooperate with us or our friends to ensure we received our belongings. We will never rent property from them...we rent over the Thanksgiving holidays. We will tell everyone we know in Austin, Texas to stay clear of these very unapproachable and unyeilding folks. Do not do business with these folks...renting or property management. We hire property managers to mange our four properties and would be appalled by this conduct.

Great

Really nice people

Nice place...

Great customer service

Very helpful and insightful

Nice rental

Very well

I really liked the shrimp and the dessert.