We rented this unit for our stay while attending Austin City Limits, as it is within good walking distance, but we were extremely disappointed with its cleanliness and some of its published features. We decided to rent it based on the pictures on the Airbnb listing, as it looked like a beautiful unit and the owner was very responsive to our questions. It is a great unit, but as we found out, it’s not very well maintained nor that clean.
We are experienced travelers and have certain expectations when we pay a premium for a rental property like this one. We arrived around 330pm to basically drop off our luggage and then ran out to rent bikes and run errands. We briefly came back to change clothes for a late dinner and returned around 1030pm. Upon returning from dinner and during our unpacking, we found a number of issues with the unit.
First and most surprisingly, the bedsheets on both beds were dirty and clearly had not been changed from the last guests..Yuck!! There were hairs and makeup on the sheets and pillow cases. Floors were dirty – dust and hair on bath floors, dead cockroaches on bedroom floors, and dust bunnies throughout the unit. The best surprise was finding a pair of black panties under the front bedroom bed with dust bunnies all around it. You know that had been there a while! BTW, you could see it if you were standing next to the bed!
The back bathroom toilet was not clean and had urine stains on the toilet. The rear bath shower appeared to not have been cleaned, as there was hair in the shower drain. There were several cracked/chipped glasses in the kitchen and a used K-cup still left in the Keurig coffee maker. There was an iron, but no ironing board to be found. We didn’t realize the iron surface was dirty, and when we used it, it ruined a shirt.) The shampoo bottles in both bathrooms were empty and there was no soap in either bathroom, which the Airbnb listing stated was to be provided. The rug in the living room had not even been vacuumed.
Needless to say, we weren’t very pleased having to wash sheets, vacuum and clean the first night of our stay…
The deck, outside seating and dining table/chairs were covered with leaves and dirty. They appeared to have not been cleaned for some time. Given their condition, and that there wasn’t even a broom in the unit for us to clean them, we weren’t really able to take advantage of the outside areas. It was very disappointing that we couldn’t enjoy the nice warm Austin evenings after ACL on the outside deck…
On the night of the day we arrived, for some reason when we returned from dinner, the smart door lock wasn’t functioning and we couldn’t get into the unit. Fortunately, we found a way to get in. But, we do want to acknowledge that the property manager sent a very nice gentleman over to check it out the next morning and all seemed in order. We told him about all the issues we were having, texted him pictures and he said he’d pass everything along to the property manager. He also told us they were having issues with their cleaning company.
Later that day, we received a refund of the $150 cleaning fee we had paid for our rental. Yes, the unit is a beautiful unit and it’s in a nicely located, good, quiet neighborhood. And the WiFi works very well. The kitchen is pretty well equipped. Has a Keurig coffee maker and some standard K-cups regular coffee is provided. If you prefer different coffee blend, bring your own! Nice touch of USB chargers in the kitchen.
If you’ve already signed up to rent this unit or are considering renting it, I would strongly recommend you get assurances from the property owner and property manager that they’ve addressed the issues we ran into. One last thing we’d like to highlight in their property listing: There is no TV and there is no hair dryer…so plan accordingly.
We hope you have a better experience than we did...