When my best friend from high school (who also happens to be named Mark) recently took a vacation in Guadalajara, Mexico, we had specific requirements. We needed two beds, a good location and — even better — two bedrooms. This is one situation where Airbnb clearly has an advantage over traditional hotels, since the cost of renting a two-bedroom apartment on Airbnb or Homeway is generally much cheaper than staying in a two-bedroom hotel suite.
After much research, we chose a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in a relatively new high-rise apartment tower in an upscale Guadalajara neighborhood called Ladrón de Guevara. Here’s a review of our experience at the “19A Increíble Departamento” — including some frustrating problems that made us wish we’d rented a different place.
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THE STYLE: Cititower is a two-tower high-rise complex, with a cluster of retail businesses on the two bottom floors. The approximately two-year-old complex features two twenty-story towers and lots of shiny modern style.
The main entry is a giant lobby on the side street, and the building is so high-tech that there are no keys (not for the lobby or even for the apartment). Full-time residents and owners can use their fingerprints to open the building doors; the downside is that if you’re staying as a short-term guest, your finger doesn’t work, and you must rely on the doormen to buzz you in (which is fine in the main lobby but problematic in the smaller lobby in our building, where there frequently was no doorman on duty).
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THE AIRBNB APARTMENT: We stayed in apartment 19A. The first thing you notice is the incredible 19th-floor view, thanks to the glorious floor-to-ceiling windows. Contemporary style and furnishings, with a modern, open-kitchen concept and foul-size appliances, made this an extremely attractive setting for a stay. We also made good use of the small laundry room off of the kitchen.
The apartment has a small balcony with dramatic city views and a glass rail that may give pause to some people with fear of heights. The balcony also connects to the main bedroom, which is spacious and has two walls of windows. The main bedroom also has a large walk-in closet and an en-suite bathroom with shower.
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BUILDING FEATURES: As my friend Mark said after a couple days, you could basically live in the Cititower complex and almost never leave it. It’s very convenient that there’s a 24-hour upscale supermarket, Soriana, in the building. There’s also a beauty salon/barbershop, spa, a Thrifty ice cream parlor, a sushi restaurant, wing-and-beer restaurant and two cafes. The neighborhood itself is relatively quiet (so quiet, in fact, that I heard no noise while sleeping, even though I had to leave the giant sliding door open since my air conditioning wasn’t working. But you can walk to a few other restaurants and there is a small mall (Centro Magno?) several blocks away. It’s not the most exciting neighborhood, honestly, but it’s pleasant.
The Cititower complex also has a sizable gym and a large outdoor pool, as well as (believe it or not) a trampoline, which helped me to connect with my inner child. Full-time residents can also make use of a party room and cinema room, but they’re not an option for Airbnb guests.
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THE PROBLEMS: Unfortunately, our gorgeous apartment was flawed. After the first day, we lost hot water. In addition, the keyless, coded door entry system often required us to enter the code up to five times before the apartment door opened (a problem confirmed by the apartment manager, who had assumed that we’d set the deadbolt and were inside when we weren’t). And we also couldn’t figure out the cable TV system and couldn’t get it to turn on (the rental manager left no guide to anything in the apartment).
Most importantly, the air conditioning never worked in the largest bedroom, where I slept. I had to sleep on the couch one morning, since my room become unbearable as soon as the sun came up, since the temperature quickly rose to an unbearable 33 degrees celsius. Multiple texts, phone calls and one unfruitful visit by a maintenance person never fixed the problem. And a promise by the rental manager, Omar, to speak with the owner about a partial refund or credit never resulted in anything. Eventually, we just had to give in and accept the fact that we didn’t have air conditioning in part of the apartment.
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Is this an example of how hotels are more reliable than Airbnb apartments? Perhaps. If we’d been staying in a hotel on our Mexico vacation, they would have surely moved us to another room with air conditioning that worked. But considering how often I’ve stayed with Airbnb in other locations and not had any problems (and the fact that I certainly have had some nightmare stays in hotels, too), I’d say that this Airbnb problem was more an indicator of why you shouldn’t rent an apartment from this particular apartment manager. The few times I have had a problem with Airbnb, the host either resolved the situation quickly or else issued some kind of credit (like a free night credit, or dropping an additional charge).
I’d definitely rent an Airbnb apartment in Guadalajara again (perhaps even in this same complex), but I wouldn’t run the risk of renting again from this particular manager, since he wasn’t capable of resolving serious problems and also provided no form of compensation to make up for our troubles. There are lots of other beautiful apartments to rent in Guadalajara!
https://departurelevel.com/mexico/lf-awards-8-great-hotels-in-guadalajara-mexico/