I usually do not write bad reviews, but my experience with Black Opal was so awful I thought my info would be helpful to others. I’d like to start off by saying that I did not stay at the rental since I refused to give this individual anymore of my money due to his unprofessional communication and his dishonest / thieving rental practices. Let me lay it out for you:
1. Extra charges for dog (any size) - $75 DAILY & explained to me that this was for the extra cleaning fee, when he already charges you (the client) $200-$250 for cleaning fee on top of rent when booking the place. I happen to have family that owns a cleaning company and I can tell you already $200-250 is already pretty hefty price for a deep cleaning of an apartment of that size - so, the EXTRA incremental DAILY charge of $75 for dog hair is ridiculous and downright thieving! Also, even if you pay for the dog at the the beginning while reserving your stay, he still expects you to pay this charge again before you can check in and claims that there is an error within the airBNB system…
2. Extra charges for early check in and late checkout. $100 each or $175 for both. This includes just leaving your bags at the rental early! What a joke! And the cleaning team may still be there… even though you have paid for early check in?! Hmmm downright robbery!
3. Extra charges for ANY guest that may step into the residence, even if just for a couple hours (not including spending the night). $25 per person per day! It was explained to me that this was to cover the toiletries, toilet paper, soap, and trash removal that EACH individual person uses. I was very specific in that guests would only be visiting for a few hours at most for ONE day during my stay, but it was still $25/day. Also, Black Opal can not figure out how to charge you for just one day of guest entry out of your multiple day stay, so they expect you to pay for an additional guest for each day of your stay even if you are only requesting to have guests come visit for one day only. This is when I decided to cancel my stay, because now this was beyond ridiculous and a HUGE waste of my time and money. He refused to fix the calculation/price issue and I refused to pay for multiple guests for multiple days, so I canceled and EASILY & QUICKLY booked a king suite at the Fairmont hotel for CHEAPER with better customer service, in a better part of Austin, and without surprise ridiculous extra charges.
4. The place is in east Austin BTW! If you are from Austin, you know what that means…
5. Austin is a dog friendly city (as are MANY cities in the US now) and most hotels and AirBnBs and VRBOs and whatever else you might use is very accommodating to animals. Fairmont Hotel had NO extra pet charges!
6. Out of principle there are MUCH better places in Austin for you to stay that will not try to rob you of your hard earned money. Good luck if you end up booking with Black Opal, this person is a crook!