Overall a positive stay but my experience had many downsides.
Positives:
- The location is absolutely prime, in the very heart of downtown Dallas, walking distance to several museums, parks, and historic landmarks. This is a perfect place if you're here for a week or less.
- Immediate access to the highway
- Lightrail is one block away
- Restaurants in the financial district are a 5 min drive away
- Deep Ellum (the bars) is less than 10mins down the road and accessible by lightrail
- The unit is beautiful
- Probably one of the most spacious airbnbs you'll find for this price
- Well decorated
- Feels luxurious
- Has a rustic loft vibe that you would find in Brooklyn
- There is a convenience store downstairs as well as a Subway restaurant in case you don't want to go far for food or some supplies
- Second bedroom is very useful if you're traveling with a child or have a friend staying over temporarily
- Washer/dryer included which is very useful for an extended stay
- The host was kind enough to purchase an iron and ironing board per my request
Negatives:
- Check-in was a very poor experience
- On arrival I was instructed to pick up a key card from Security that would grant access to the main part of the building
- There was no key card and the security guard was extremely rude and unhelpful
- I was expecting the host to be available for assistance but they did not respond until the following morning so my first night was very turbulent as a result
- The key card was not available until two days later so I had to interact with the rude security guard in order to get in and out of the building during that time
- The residence was devoid of almost all essential supplies
- The following basics were missing on arrival:
- Garbage bags
- Hand soap
- Dish soap
- Dish washing pods
- Detergent
- Coffee
- Salt
- A sharp knife (the only available knives were serrated and completely rusted)
- Dish drying rack
- I ended up purchasing these supplies myself since it would have taken longer to coordinate this through the host and some things might have been missed
- The kitchen came with a few very basic items like one pot and one pan
- This is perfectly fine for a short stay but anything longer than a week where you'd need to cook, this would be entirely insufficient for
- I purchased additional cooking utensils and materials that future tenants will find useful
- The kitchen sink spigot was broken
- Opening the faucet would produce a very tiny stream of water, making it unusable
- There was also no hot water in this sink
- I relayed this to the host and they sent a plumber out two days later
- The plumber said the entire spigot would need to be replaced but he'll need to get approval from the host to do so
- The host never followed up on this issue so the sink remained broken during the stay
- As a result all dishes could only be washed using the dish washer
- The floors/walls are deceptively thin
- While it may seem the unit is entirely sound proof thanks to the wood, brick and rock floors, the opposite is true
- The upstairs tenants were undergoing a construction project during the entirely of my stay to the point where drilling/hammering sounds and conversation could be heard very audibly
- I left an important item at this residence after checking out
- I reached out to the host but did not get a response til three full days later, during which time I sent a message each day that went unresponded
- In response, the host seemed unenthused to help and conveyed a general lack of effort in helping locate the item
- I had to give up on that and replace it, an expensive loss
All of this could have been avoided if the host was simply more communicative. The host displayed a general disinterest in my stay which lasted five weeks and was fairly expensive. Comparatively, other hosts I've worked with were proactive in their communication and made sure to confirm all issues were resolved. Some would even check in here and there just to make sure everything was going well. Between the awful check in process, the lack of follow up on the broken sink and the disinterest in the forgotten item, the communication was very poor. Everything was done over text, one of the fastest and easiest methods of communication.
I believe future tenants will have a more positive experience thanks to some kinks being worked out but there is still much room for improvement.