Gramma's house ROCKS!

Guest: dk (Las Vegas NV)
Date of Stay: 10/26/11 Review Submitted: 11/07/11

We spent a week with my 3 adult children, my son's girlfriend, son in law, ex-wife and young son, my brother and a family friend and had an absolute blast. Indeed, the front porch is great for people watching, the back yard offered room for BBQ, picture taking, great conversation for my extended family and our guests. The servants quarters accommodated my ex and her son perfectly as the boy really enjoyed the loft. Halloween night was exceptionally fun with all the visitors. There have been reviews that the neighborhood is "sketchy." It’s just an older neighborhood that doesn't have a HOA dictating everything. It just has... character. Enjoy... we surely did.

Recommended for:Families with teenagers, families with young children.

Awesome vacation experience!!!

Guest: Becky (Bastrop, TX)
Date of Stay: 06/19/11 Review Submitted: 06/23/11

We spent three nights at Casa de Abuela...June 19-22, 2011, and couldn't have asked for a more charming place to stay. The house and cottage easily slept 4 adults and 7 children and provided plenty of space for all. We also liked the fact that we could take our small dogs, who investigated the back yard thoroughly, and enjoyed time on the front porch also. I think the four adults liked the front porch more than anything...we spent every morning out there enjoying our coffee and watching the neighborhood wake up. The kids loved seeing the various birds that visited, and liked taking the dogs for a walk on Mulberry St. This was a trip with our son's family, so it was grandparent/grandkids time, and we spent most of it away from the house. My daughter-in-law and I both wished that we had booked an extra day just to enjoy the house. Thank you so much for an excellent place to stay! When we need a lot of space again, we'll definitely be back!!!

Recommended for:Families with teenagers, pet owners, age 55+, girls getaway, sightseeing, families with young children.

PERFECT FOR LACKLAND BMT GRADUATION

Guest: Barbara (Smyrna, TN)
Date of Stay: 04/27/11 Review Submitted: 05/11/11

My son graduated BMT at the end of April & this was THE perfect location for friends/family. He enjoyed the comfort of a home so much! It was a true pleasure dealing with the owner, I couldn't imagine having a better experience. The house was wonderful!! It was equipped with everything we could possibly want. We grilled steaks and cooked in another night, and had everything we needed. We brought my son's dog as a surprise, & she was very happy in the large yard. I will address older reviews: we had no complaints and there were no bugs at all. Also, after dealing with Shirley, I can't believe anybody would have an issue with her, she is fair and straight up. It is a very old home, but that only adds to the character. The neighborhood was sketchy, but we were greeted by many of the neighbors & felt safe. We had a great time at Grandma's House & would recommend it for any large group. It is not a hotel, so know what you want before you rent a home.

Owner response:Thanks so much for all the wonderful feedback. I'll look forward to having you as my guests again.

Recommended for:Families with teenagers, romantic getaway, pet owners, adventure seekers, age 55+, girls getaway, sightseeing, families with young children.

Perfect Location!

Guest: Susan (Topeka, Kansas)
Date of Stay: 03/17/11 Review Submitted: 03/22/11

This house is wonderful, very well maintained and spotless! The sheets were the highest thread count I have ever slept on, and they were ALL of that quality. We could have used more towels, and I was tempted to buy some wine glasses to donate...not many pots and pans to choose from, but we got by. I have to also say that I did not see one insect the entire time we were there, I feel compelled to include this in view of one of the very critical reviews from the past several months. I also found the owner to be extremely welcoming, especially in her pet policy, as we did have a last minute request in this regard. Thank you so much, we will stay with you again!

Owner response:Thanks for the great review. I'm so glad you enjoyed all the wonderful things that I love about Casa de Abuela. And I just went out and bought some new wine glasses!

Recommended for:Families with teenagers, pet owners, age 55+, girls getaway, sightseeing, families with young children.

Worked Great

Guest: West Coast Visitor (Beaumont, California)
Date of Stay: 02/25/11 Review Submitted: 03/02/11

This house was just perfect. It had all we needed for the weekend. Tons of room for me and my kids.Yard was large enough to be outside and enjoy it. Everyone had a bed and there own space. I would come back again if it was available.

Recommended for:Families with teenagers, families with young children.

Great time in San Antonio

Guest: San (Stevens Point, WI)
Date of Stay: 10/14/10 Review Submitted: 11/01/10

I loved the house! Will not reiterate what others have said, but do want to tell prospective renters that if a person walks south on Vollum Street for a few blocks, there is a very lovely park with a nice walking trail around a small lake. If one walks north several blocks there is an HEB grocery. It is very convenient to the Alamo and El Mercado, all the tourist arrtractions. The house was an excellent value and we enjoyed our time there.

Recommended for:Families with teenagers, romantic getaway, age 55+, girls getaway, sightseeing, people with disabilities, families with young children.

Roach Infestation

Guest: trvene (Tucson, AZ/USA)
Date of Stay: 07/24/10 Review Submitted: 09/20/10

A simple refund of the cleaning fee would have been acceptable to both rental families, however the owner refused to do anything other than apologize for the inconvenience. Here's a copy of one of the emails I sent to the owner regarding our experience: We chose to stay at your property because of the historical neighborhood it is in and because it seemed to be a nicely maintained house as well as because we felt we'd have more room than in a hotel and a better opportunity for our two families to spend quality time together. We compromised by not having a pool or Internet as it was more important to just be together. For the most part, the house was perfect. It came equipped with all the necessary amenities and was nicely decorated and very spacious. The kids enjoyed the separate guest house to hang out in. The few things we encountered with the door handle and window shade were minor problems that we had to deal with. However, cleanliness is extremely important to our families and roaches are extremely undesirable and created a huge damper on our vacation. On the very first night we encountered a very large cockroach in the pantry. We then discovered cockroach droppings in the pantry, kitchen drawers, and hallway linen closet, which forced us to have to deal with rearranging the food we had already placed in the pantry, having to wash dishes more frequently and to figure out creative ways to store them so that they were not recontaminated by putting back into the same cupboards/drawers (we put them in plastic storage containers, empty coolers, in the dishwasher and on top of the stove). I also had a personal encounter on day 3 with a cockroach in the living room as it ran across my leg while I was sitting on the couch. This problem was very inconvenient for all of us and made our San Antonio vacation much less than desirable. Considering the rental fees we paid (as well as additional cleaning fee), we feel this was something that should never have been an issue. Apparently, this is a problem that you've had to address before. The roaches were large and very healthy looking and there was enough evidence of droppings to indicate this was certainly not something that sprang up overnight. ...hotels typically comp your 1st night stay and either correct the problem or offer you another room. I sincerely hope that you will take all this into consideration when deciding how to compensate us for this unpleasant experience.

Owner response:Providing a clean and comfortable place for my guests is very important to me. I was aware of the roach problem about a month before these guests arrived, and my property manager treated the house using a chemical that we had used successfully before. Therefore, I assumed the issue was solved. When they informed me that there were roaches in the house, I immediately called a professional exterminator and had the house treated while they were out. The issue with these guests appeared to be that they wanted at least one night's refund reguardless of the problem. Given that I had acted in good faith originally and responded as quickly as possible, I do not feel that they were entitled to a refund for a night's stay. A good compromise would have been some portion of their cleaning fee, but that is not what they asked for at the time and, unfortunately, I didn't think of it .

Recommended for:

summer vacation

Guest: les_77587 (houston texas)
Date of Stay: 08/06/10 Review Submitted: 08/17/10

I was very impressed with the house ,everything was just as it was stated online . The kids loved it still talk about how much they liked the house.Very comfortable home.Very close to down town and Seaworld. Love the wrap around porch it was great for the kids. The outside cottage was also great. Next time i make a trip to San Antonio i will make sure this is the first place that i look for.

Recommended for:Families with teenagers, romantic getaway, girls getaway, sightseeing, families with young children.

We loved our stay

Guest: Family of 10 (Joshua, Texas)
Date of Stay: 07/08/10 Review Submitted: 07/15/10

We love old houses with hardwood floors and wooden trim, and anyone else who does would probably love this house as we did. We found it to be well cared for inside and appreciated the large yard. The rooms were decorated in such a way as to be peaceful, pleasant, and welcoming. We had plenty of space in the main house and had no need to use the back cottage. We found kitchenware, serving pieces, etc. for serving our full group and also pantry items stocked which we personally did not use, but found to be a thoughtful and welcoming touch. Shirley specifically stated that she was fully available should we need anything, and we appreciated that very much. We found our stay to be wonderful and would choose to stay here again and recommend it to others we know who appreciated similar houses with a "home away from home" feel.

Recommended for:

Visitor from the UK

Guest: Adopted Texan (Yorkshure, England)
Date of Stay: 05/14/10 Review Submitted: 05/27/10

The description of the property on the website was not as we found it. There was insufficient sleeping accommodation, (the single bedroom had no door), the inside of the property gave the impression of being neglected and bed linen was not fresh. The cottage was not a cottage, but a converted garage which smelt damp and which I felt was unsuitable for sleeping in. Very disappointed as I had come a long way from the UK to spend some time with my relatives. I would not recommend this property to a friend or relative of mine.

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