My partner and I spent an unexpectedly stressful month in this unit. We had just moved to Vancouver from abroad, and booked this as a landing pad while we looked for housing. I would absolutely not recommend staying here, as Plan A Group did not seem to care about our experience.
Our sense was that the company was poorly managed from the top down. It seemed junior employees were put under a lot of pressure and delivered bad outcomes to us as result.
Pros:
Everything was brand new and the unit was very clean when we arrived. We loved the rain shower and the heated floors in the bathroom. The location is truly brilliant! You can walk to Stanley Park, and to the water on either side of downtown in 15 minutes. We found so many restaurants and cafes that we enjoyed during our stay. The Smart TV and Internet both worked perfectly and were fun to use. Finally, they allowed us to use an extra storage locker (for a charge of 70 CAD) which was very helpful.
False Advertising:
The unit pictured is NOT the unit you are booking! The photos show a 616 sq ft (according to their website) 4th floor unit with balcony. We actually got a 540 sq ft basement unit facing the parking lot. When we complained and asked for a discount, they tried to tell us that we should have known based on the unit number (004), but this was not listed anywhere in the ad! They did give a discount after some negotiating, but in hindsight I wish I had asked for a larger one, as being in a basement made a big difference to our well-being while working from home.
Terrible communication:
We have many examples of this, but the 3 most disruptive examples are:
1) How they handled apartment viewings. Longer term tenancy is Plan A’s main business, so our unit was shown to prospective tenants. The visits were very frequent over a period of 1-2 weeks, and we never had any say as to when viewings would take place. I just received text messages saying “There will be a showing at this date and time”. This was very inconvenient as we were working from home due to COVID-19. I asked the staff member coordinating the visits to be considerate of this and only book showings in specific windows, but they were under so much pressure from the owner that they couldn’t even accommodate that simple request.
2) They sent an internet repair person without any warning, even though the internet had been working very well for us up until then. The network went down in the middle of my meeting!
3) We bought a couch to bring to our new apartment and asked that the one included be taken away. They showed up without notice just before some meetings and had to turn them away. We agreed on a time for them to come back but they never showed up!
Inconveniences in the unit:
The couch provided was rock hard, and the mattress was also quite uncomfortable. The Stove elements were not installed properly, so all four were at an angle- making it hard to cook anything evenly.
Bad run-ins with the owner:
Our first interaction with the owner was when we asked for a discount on the basis of false advertising (as mentioned above). He made many excuses and did not show any empathy for our disappointment.
Later on my partner was calling his sister just outside the building (to not disturb me during a meeting), when the owner confronted him and demanded to know if he lived in the building. Needless to say, we did not feel like valued customers.
To reiterate: we do NOT recommend this listing in particular, or booking with Plan A in general.