Do not stay!!!!
There was a number of things about this Air B n B that truly disappointed us and tainted our stay in Austin. Overall, we are deeply saddened about our experience. I think it’s important to provide an accurate and honest review, so that other guests do not have the same experience. Please read the full review.
** TLDR:
Cons: Terrible communication, dirty, inefficient AC, cockroaches, and RATS!!
Pros: Dog friendly, convenient location**
The pros of this apartment is that the location is convenient if you need to get downtown and close to stores, you have access to laundry (that you will need to pay a few bucks for), and that it is dog friendly. This is where all the pros end.
Firstly, when we checked in we noticed that the unit is run down and much older than the photographs/listing suggest. As other reviews mention, the unit could use a renovation due to chipped kitchen surfaces, rusty kitchen sink, damaged bathroom, stained bathroom tiles, damaged paint, patched up dry wall. Not to mention, it’s darker and dingier than the photos suggest.
Additionally, we walked in to see the bathroom was still dirty from previous guests, initially thinking this was black mould, we alerted our host. Moreover, we had one fork between the two of us for a 12-day stay. Given this was in the first 24-48 hours, we found that the host at this point was responsive and willing to resolve this issue. They sent out a new cleaner the next day who recleaned the bathroom and we got some new silverware.
A few days later, we noticed our AC was not cooling as we liked, and was cooling inefficiently and to around 76-77 in the day. As we were working from home, and adjusting to the Texan heat, we found this was good enough. Unfortunately, you do not have full control over the Nest system, and can only set between parameters of their choosing. I let the host know, and they assured me they’d let maintenance know, however we never had anyone come out to resolve the AC, despite the host informing me someone came out to fix it. This was totally inaccurate as we were home ALL day, and no one came by. Again, I let the host know and nothing was resolved. They did not respond to me and we just managed with them AC as is.
At this point, I was sort of annoyed about the stay, but was going to get over it and call it a doozy and that be it. Until our final night where we were awoken at 2:00am by the loud sound of an animal stuck in a sticky trap in the kitchen/hallway. It was flapping around and banging. We contacted the host and there was NO response. We contacted air b n b and they too contacted the host. We noticed that the critter was a large rat. The sound the animal was making from pain as well as trying to escape was horrific, so horrific we could not sleep. Eventually the rat managed to escape which means the rat was running around the apartment with us and our belongings!!! We were totally disgusted & left early in the morning, completely exhausted - we camped out in a parking lot until we could leave, that’s how bad it was! Not to mention, I’ve been informed by authorities that sticky traps are ILLEGAL due to the sheer cruelty.
The only communication we received back from the host was 1) an automated message asking if we were going to be leaving early so they could clean (ha!!!!) 2) an apology for a slow response and that they’d alerted maintenance - NO apology about the rat. NO apology about the vile and UNSAFE experience we had.
It’s totally unacceptable, and we have sent messages to the management and it is now over 48 hours, and we have heard NOTHING in return.
We spent over $2000 - $200 plus of which was for a cleaning fee when honestly the place is so filthy (don’t look under sofas you’ll see huge dirty dust bunnies, hair, and cockroaches!) Save your money and find another property!!!
We stayed in Austin in April with another host and had an incredible time, while this was the antithesis of that experience!!!! We have only ever had positive air b n b experiences, so we were honestly just so surprised that this was so terrible.
If you’ve made it this far - I hope this informs your decision to NOT stay at this place and do NOT stay at any of their other properties, because if you unfortunately face any issues during your stay, you likely will not have them resolved.
[They will probably claim we are after money, like they responded to some other poor individual that stayed here, but I have all the evidence to back up my review - which I have shared with air b n b, and the host.]