My family and I stayed in EJ's townhouse for two nights and by the time check-in rolled around, we were definitely ready to leave. The pictures show a dazzling townhouse with modern features and "luxury" features, but bottom line, the place was a facade. Within 30 minutes of checking-in, we started noticing several flaws: the wall tablet on the second floor wasn't working (the screen showed 5 error signs and couldn't get the tablet to engage the lock feature for the entrance door), the dining room table chairs were wobbly and my husband fixed one of them so it was more stable, several remote controllers were missing batteries, decor pieces were cracked, we noticed several towels and the bath rug in the master bath were stained. To top it off, the place had undergone a poor cleaning job. I messaged EJ shortly after we arrived, between the hours of 9am-6pm as mentioned underneath the "during your stay" section, but didn't receive a reply until the next day. I noted the "hair in the bathrooms and on pillowcases, ants on the counters, crumbs on the floor/rug, surfaces not wiped down very well" that I sent in a message and also inquired further about what "breakfast provided" looked like. I also said I'd be happy to provide pictures of the uncleanliness. The next morning, I sent another message about one of the showers not working. When EJ replied, there was never any kind of apology. Instead, he was dismissive and kept saying, "Well, that's strange..." as if implying that my family and I were at fault for the flaws. He clarified there is no breakfast provided. He’s not able to list coffee on its own. My thought was why list it all or why not include that tidbit of information in the description? He also said that his cleaning manager had a major accident and the manager's assistant had been on her own. With such a massive place to clean and COVID still a thing, that was pretty alarming. It made it hard to relax and feel comfortable since it made us question what was truly clean and what wasn’t, especially our bedding and towels. One of his suggestions was to have the "cleaners assistant come back to clean any areas if you’d like since manager is in the hospital. We can fix any areas. We won't provide any refunds since we can fix." Yes, of course I'm empathetic towards the manager, but having only one person clean the entire place is setting them up for failure. And when I, as a customer, pay a hefty cleaning fee, I feel like it’s only fair to expect a result that reflects said cleaning fee. I was pretty straight-forward and asked for a refund for the cleaning fee, especially since my family and I had already wiped/cleaned up some of the areas (the refund was shot down). He also suggested having a plumber come out, but again, in my opinion, that should’ve been something that was caught prior to our stay and not have to worry about someone invading our privacy during our stay. The following morning, the shower on the main floor would not shut off. Immediately, I tried calling the number listed on the listing to inform EJ and it went straight to voicemail and was told not to leave a message. So that was frustrating. At this point, 8 people are staying in a place with only one shower functioning properly… We did everything on our end to try to fix the second broken shower and leave the place better than how we found it. I messaged EJ again about the problem. He simply said he’d have a plumber come by asap. We asked if there was a way to shut off the water. He said, “Don’t think so.” But again, no apology, no indication of acknowledging all the issues we’ve had. Nothing. Very unprofessional.
The biggest perk about this place was the location. You could walk out and be in the middle of Bishop Arts, which was convenient and the only saving grace about staying here. The overall space was great. The rooftop was cool. However, the lack of cleanliness and how the host responded to our concerns was definitely a huge let down. At least apologize, dude. It’s not hard. I would definitely come back to Bishop Arts, but as you can probably guess, I wouldn’t come back and stay here again.