Normally stay at the Esmeralda, but this time looking for a very nice/clean villa/condo with A/C and pool, 1 bedroom (king bed)/1 bath near Orient Beach ($125 to $250 per night). Any help very much appreciated.

We've rented through gobeach.com several times. Lots of options near Orient Beach on their website.

Try Fleur de Sel and Le Cozi - both are on VRBO and Flipkey and Laure and Marion both have several one BR units at Orient. You can't go wrong with either. Great places.

I've looked at the site and do see quite a lot. Have you had any issues with payments or deposits?

Thanks, I'll give them a look.

Not at all! We've rented through them multiple times and again for our upcoming trip in May!

Most, if not all, of those listed villa's are leased and managed by Foncia Cap Caraibes (Magali Bertho). Her office is in Orient Village. Why not go direct to the source.

We rented La Plage from Marion and were very happy with the unit and Marion's great service.

Magali has always been the onsite contact for the villas we have rented through gobeach and has been very helpful. We have also rented through St. Martin Blue (onsite management was Pierre Caribes). It's really 6 of one 1/2 dozen of the other, IMO - in our case, we have gotten used to having gobeach handle the terms of our booking. There are multiple "agents" who handle some of the same properties and not all have the same deposit, terms, or payment options.

Depending on when you are going, Paradise Bungalows (aka O Paradis) are nice. They're a little bit more of a walk to the beach than Esmerelda though although that has never been an issue for us. Bruno of Dreams and Petit Casino is the owner. Unfortunately they seem to be permanently booked in the high season. We tried to rent them a year in advance in February with no luck!

Any idea how Trip Advisor compares with others out there?