I live around the corner from B-side, and booked it for my parents so that they had a COVID-safe place to stay during their visit. They were great hosts and really took good care of my parents, who were Airbnb newbies. Here's what my dad had to say!
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My wife and I car-camped five days from Pennsylvania to Texas, to stay COVID-safe all the way to Austin to welcome our first grandchild into the world. It was a challenge for two old people in their 60s, sleeping in the back of the car, carrying our own kitchen and cooler and potty; when we reached B Side, the stylish B & B our son rented for us for the month of December, it was an oasis!
B Side’s in the Austin neighborhood called Cherrywood, where Austin’s really cool people live. In our first visit to Austin a year ago, when we could still fly and take a room wherever we liked, I asked my son about staying downtown in the famous live music district. He was repulsed by the idea: “Dad! You can stay down there with the tourists and see bridal parties coming out of bars throwing up in the streets any time you like.” But Cherrywood, an easy bike ride or jog from the heart of downtown, is a colorful, quiet, green little community, with great diversity of architecture and landscaping on its curvy streets. It appears that everyone here is a surfer or an artist or a professor or a software-something.
Although the B Side’s appealing on the B & B website, it’s far better “in person”. It’s a second-floor apartment with 12’ ceilings and enormous windows, all looking out at enormous old trees. When breezes blow and the sun shines it’s quite stunning; the windows gave us the sense that we were living in a very private and luxurious treehouse. The windows and high ceilings, and the bright colors of furnishings and paintings and prints on the walls, give the place a spacious, airy… yet cozy and personal feeling.
The hosts are perfection. They live right next door, but I never saw them… unless I wanted to. It was startling, really, how quickly Ryan would appear at our door if I texted him about a problem – when I deprogrammed the electronic lock, ran out of coffee, broke a window latch, etc. And if I texted Ryan with a simple question, like “Where are the trash bags?” or “Know any good landscape architects for my son?” or “Who makes best barbecue?” he responded in less than 10 seconds every time!
Good luck finding an open date though; I intend to book it well in advance for whenever I’m in town.