Eight of us (three adults and five children ages 6 to 11) stayed in a four-bedroom unit at Indigo the last week of July 2010. Having had extensive experience staying in condos from Gulf Shores to Panama City Beach and in luxury condos from Orange Beach to SanDestin (e.g., Silver Shells at Destin, Westwinds at SanDestin, The Grand SanDestin, Portofino at Pensacola Beach, Eden at Perdido and Caribe at Perdido), we were impressed but not overly so.

First the positives. We stayed in a four-bedroom unit that was quite spacious. The kitchen and living/dining area was generously sized. The washer and dryer were full-size machines and the bedrooms were bigger than usual for Gulf front condominiums. Indigo is directly and immediately on the beach. Indeed, the walk from the west tower to the water’s edge is shorter than in any other Gulf of Mexico condo complex I have ever stayed. The beach itself is beautiful and the white sand shows no signs of the BP oil spill. The quality of the design is above average and the complex is only five years old. It features a movie theater that can play ordinary DVD’s. We used that theater and the quality of the screen projection and sound is excellent.

The design of the pool is big, impressive and, at the same time, very child friendly. There is also a large “social room” in each of the two towers. Both have full kitchens, are very nice and can easily handle at least two-dozen people. Moreover, all guests at Indigo can reserve and use these rooms and I am told they are rarely booked-up.

Indigo is located at the eastern end of development on Perdido Key. It is very close to a brand new Publix, fairly close to a super Wal-Mart and Target, fairly close to the Naval Air Museum and convenient to downtown Pensacola. I had never stayed this far east on Perdido Key and actually like this location best. Even though we live west of Alabama, we used Blue Angel Parkway to get to/from I-10 and avoid Alabama Highway 59 traffic altogether.

Now for the negatives. There seem to be a lot of maintenance issues at Indigo. We had to request maintenance for various problems four different times during our one-week stay. Upon arriving we discovered a broken lamp, a broken patio light, a frequently used drawer missing its pull knob, a toilet seeping onto a bathroom floor due to a failed toilet wax seal, and a balcony screen door literally in tatters. To its credit, the Indigo maintenance staff repaired all of these items promptly except the screen door. We were told that at Indigo, all screens are periodically fixed at once - not on an as needed basis. Thus, our screen never got fixed.

During our stay at Indigo, other maintenance issues crept up. A toilet flapper broke, the oven shorted out, the refrigerator icemaker barely produced ice and the air conditioner struggled to keep the unit cool in the afternoons and early evenings. Indigo now has WiFi throughout the complex but the WiFi signal only reached the two bedrooms in the rear of our unit. Additionally, the carpet in our unit was badly soiled. Such a volume of issues surprised us since, as noted, these units are only five years old and are advertised as luxury accommodations.

While we rented directly from an owner who does not use ResortQuest or any other big rental agency, the problems we encountered were not limited to the interior of our unit. The gate codes (to the beach gate from the west tower beach walkway and at the driveway entrance to Indigo) often did not work for us and other guests. Besides gate code issues, many doors/gates around the complex either did not swing open freely or did not close completely.

The landscaping was adequate but by no means luxurious. There were not many flowering plants while beach grass and weeds were taking over some of the landscaped areas. The weeds were especially bad around the two tennis courts. Speaking of the tennis courts, the only squee-gee at hand was broken and the tennis courts’ gate was a gate that would not close all the way.

Over half of the underwater pool lights were out, lots of debris (twigs, leaves, hair, etc.) and scum tended to accumulate in the pool around the northeast steps, and the pool bottom was very rough. One member of our group owns a pool. He says a rough bottom on a five-year-old pool is due to haphazard PH control.

I also think the lobby areas were odd – particularly in the east tower where everyone checks-in and gets their condo key-card. Apparently, only the real estate sales people use the built-in hotel style “check-in/check-out desk” while the functional check-in desk is a hodge-podge of office furniture situated toward the middle of the lobby. Other than that hodge-podge, there are not many furnishings or decorative plants in either lobby. What furniture there is is unremarkable. The “business center” is merely a desktop computer sitting in the mailroom. The “desk chair” is a folding metal cafeteria chair with the computer keyboard lying across an open desk drawer.

The two gyms are adequate but nothing special. The gym in the west tower has one TV. It is a 25-inch Westinghouse LCD mounted on the wall with wires hanging below and beside it. There is no audio system for ear bud use. The typical gym in a Hilton Garden Inn or Marriott Courtyard is nicer. While the theater is a great amenity, it is hard to reserve for evening use since owners can reserve the theater by phone prior to their arrival but renters can only do so in person. If you are renting and want to use the theater, try to reserve it as you check-in. Reservations are free and there is no cancellation penalty.

I like almost all of Indigo’s design features but wish there was more balcony space. While Indigo has two, three and four-bedroom units, none of the units have much Gulf front balcony space and only the two and three-bedroom units (but not the three-bedroom units with dens) have balconies on the north sides of the towers. None of the balconies wrap around or extend beyond the edge of either tower. Bedroom windows are large but they do not open so all fresh air access is through the sliding glass doors on the balconies. That means the four-bedroom units can only get fresh air from each unit’s one Gulf front balcony.

If you rent at Indigo expecting luxury accommodations, you may be disappointed. Indigo is nice but falls short of luxury. However, if you rent a four-bedroom unit with another family expecting merely better than average accommodations, easy beach access and a nifty swimming pool, you will probably be very happy. Indigo offers a real bargain opportunity for families willing to double-up in one four-bedroom condo. The four-bedroom units are the 01 and 06 stacks of units in the east tower and the 01 and 04 stacks of units in the west tower. Note that some 01 units in the east tower and some 04 units in the west tower are three bedroom units with a den instead of a fourth bedroom. All four-bedroom units are end units. Among these stacks, the 01 west tower stack has the best views (and a slightly better location within the Indigo complex) with the second best view being the 06 east tower stack. The 06 stack is most susceptible to pool noise but during the week we rented, the complex was less than half occupied and we never saw more than a few people around the pool after sunset.

I spoke to an owner who generally confirmed the desirability of two families renting a four-bedroom condo together. He said that two families sharing a four-bedroom unit is the most popular rental option selected by visitors to Indigo. While it is possible to fit eight people in the three-bedroom units, the modest additional cost of a four-bedroom unit is easily worth that unit’s larger kitchen/dining/living area, four bathrooms and end unit views.