Our group of 11 girls recently stayed at the Trendy House in Austin. We booked this house because it was close to downtown Austin (a plus), and it accommodated our large group. When we arrived, however, we were a bit disappointed to find that the owner currently lives in it (closets full of clothes, bathtubs had kids toys in them, personal items around the house, etc...). Had we know this we may not have booked this home- No where in the description or reviews did it say "lived in". Among the people in our group, we have booked hundreds of VRBOs and have never had this experience of staying in a "lived in VRBO". The home had both pros and cons, listed below. I'll start with the PROS:
- Great location, only minutes from downtown austin
- accommodations for our large group
- owner was quick to respond to questions via text
- 3.5 bathrooms, that were clean, which was good for a large group of girls
CONS:
- unbeknownst to us, the house is currently being lived in. No where in the description or reviews did it mention this so we were a little taken aback. Because it was currently being lived in , obviously with children , there was some "cleanliness" issues that were not up to our groups standards.
- Carpets were very dirty and stained in almost all rooms - had to take pictures so we could prove it was there upon our arrival.
- kitchen trash can was full of garbage upon our arrival- we had to take it out when we got there.
- all of the bedding on the beds was stained and dirty looking - it may have been "washed" , but it did not appear clean. Not one person from our group felt comfortable sleeping on any of the bedding - one duvet cover in particular had a chocolate/blood(?) stain of some kind on it. We ended up stripping all beds, wash all the bedding, and remaking the beds which was not a welcome task for our group upon arrival.
- pullout sofa sleeper was available but no sheets were left out for it. We had to find the linen closet and dig through it to find a sheet set, which was weird.
- we were also asked to place dishes in dishwasher prior to checking out, but the dishwasher hadn't even been unloaded yet, so we were unable to do any dishes (because we were not going to unload the dishwasher, too!)
While there were some pros to staying in this house, unfortunately the cons outweighed those pros. When I come to Austin again, I will not be booking the Trendy House again, because I can't get over having to wash my own bedding!