Guestbook Comment

Guest: Kim & Larry (Tennessee)
Date of Stay: 10/01/07 Review Submitted: 10/01/07

We just spent a delightful three weeks in the Castro Garden Apartment and we loved it. The location is ideal, the apartment is well-appointed and very well stocked, and the use of space is so smart. And the added "extras" (the DVD collection and the garden deck,to name a couple) were a really nice surprise. It can sometimes feel chaotic when staying in San Francisco but not this time. We'll be back!

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Great Location But Encountered Several Problems With Apartment

Guest: boomerbabe (Mays Landing, NJ)
Date of Stay: 01/13/12 Review Submitted: 01/24/12

I stayed here from January 13 - 21, 2012. My initial impression was that the kitchen & bathrooms were not clean. That was also the thoughts of my traveling companion and a relative who both came inside the apartment upon our initial check-in. There is no picture of the tub & shower on any of the websites and now I know why. I thought it strange that only the sink & mirrored vanity area were shown in pictures. The tub area is very dark & hidden behind the bathroom door. The house containing the apartment was built in 1886 so the structure including the apartment is 126 years old. The bathtub is old and dingy and the fixtures are loose and wobble in the wall. The hot water faucet in the tub drips and is very hard to turn off to stop the dripping. The shower head vibrates when the water flows out of it. The bathtub does not look clean. The light in the tub went out towards the end of my stay and I told the manager about that so he could replace it. The sink area is funky looking since the caulking between the vanity & large mirror on the wall has not been cleaned or recaulked for some time by the brown gunky appearance of this area. The kitchen area was not clean either. The toaster oven was very filthy and I would never use it. The citrus juicer was dirty so one would not want to put any oranges in there to make juice! The kitchen sink was not clean. The garbage can in the kitchen was very dirty and looked as if it had not been cleaned in a long time. We were going to make tea by boiling water in one of the saucepans and noticed the entire bottom of the pan was eaten away and all that remained were large black patches where the aluminum surface had been. There were some major water & plumbing problems that I encountered during my stay. The toilet leaked on 3 occasions...a plumber was not initially called. Human waste bubbled up outside the front door when the toilet and tub backed up later on after the first rain in San Francisco in 32 days. A rug and towels were soaking wet on the floor of the bathroom that I had put down. I was asked to use the bathroom at Starbucks at 18th & Castro because the toilet was not to be flushed until someone could look at it. The toilet moved away from the wall & leaked for 3 days onto the floor. The tub backed up after that and I was unable to take a shower for 2 days. Finally a plumber or handyman came to repair the backed up sewer line. The main bedroom is too dark...more lighting is needed.

Owner response:We love our Castro Garden Apartment and take great pleasure in our guests’ enjoyment of it as well. So we greatly appreciate reasonable suggestions for improvements, and are understandably concerned when a review rivals the Amityville Horror. But in spite of constant upkeep, problems can happen, and if they do we are then on hand to fix them day or night. In this case, when the toilet backed up during our first serious rainstorm in many months, we were on hand within minutes at 6 a.m. with tools and buckets, and an hour and a half later the plumber had finished the job and the bathroom was clean and dry. The unusual situation was the result of a post-drought deluge which crippled the city sewer system and proved too much even for the powerful siphon jet of our high-end TOTO® toilet. Grateful for the constructive feedback, we have also replaced the washers in the bathtub faucets as well as under the toilet floor in order to re-secure it, and the caulking has been cleaned with a little spraying of bleach and water. We are happy to say that our adorable bathroom is now back in top-notch condition! We are also very proud of our well-equipped kitchen which makes food preparation so much more enjoyable for guests. I have since gone through all of the appliances and found the charred pan in question: a guest had apparently burnt some soup in it and put it straight into the dishwasher, which was not powerful enough to fully scour it. But after a few minutes of steel wool and a little elbow grease, it is now as good as new, aluminum surface perfectly intact. Yet apologies are indeed in order for not having caught it sooner. As this is our first negative review in five years of operation, we encourage readers to check out our other reviews in order to put this one in perspective. We also welcome any questions or concerns, and we will gladly provide other pictures besides those on the websites on request. We will continue to do our best to replace worn-out items and make other improvements to keep the Castro Garden Apartment one of the most enjoyable pied-à-terres and one of the best deals in San Francisco. –Gary and Rob

Recommended for:

Great time and Great Place

Guest: J.Hilroy (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada)
Date of Stay: 10/01/11 Review Submitted: 10/23/11

Our vacation was great, and the location of the apartment was also great. Close to the Muni(city transit system), 1/2 a block from the Castro main pedestrian traffic area. There was a couple of street festivals there too, but I was glad the apartment was just outside of the party zone. The place was good to relax in and it was awesome that there were some supplies, condiments and spreads, that you would normally have had to buy a bottle to only use a little. I have already recommended it to friends. There was only one negative, the wifi isn't fast or have a strong signal, and that is by far not a major item, however our travel plans included the instant access to maps ect for planning out our excursions. Overall it was fantastic, and I would highly recommend it to anyone.

Recommended for:Tourists without a car, sightseeing.

Really Nice place - Friendly Host

Guest: BILLECOQ (Toulouse, France)
Date of Stay: 08/08/11 Review Submitted: 08/30/11

We highly recommend this adress. The apartment is beautiful, with lots of info about the area, the city, guides, music. The place is very peaceful, and the patio and garden are really resting after day walking. The area is worth visiting : Castro (don't miss Castro Theater), Mission, Haight are about five to 15 mn by walk, and they are among the most interesting part of the city : restaurants, bars, bookshops, music, beautiful murals. Many buses, metro and trams around And to go downtown, the Fline is a wonderful experience with those astounding old trams I 'd never seen anywhere else. Last but not least, the host , while being outside San Francisco was really kind and helpful when we had to call him to find some help about a serious health issue;

Recommended for:Tourists without a car, sightseeing, adventure seekers, age 55+, families with teenagers.

Just perfect!

Guest: Mauricio (Mexico)
Date of Stay: 12/29/10 Review Submitted: 01/16/11

What you see is not what you have... is so much more indeed! The apartment is so nice, clean, and big enough to feel free and move in there, really feels like home. The location is perfect: you'll stay in a very beautiful and quite neighborhood, and just steps away from many transportation options to move easyly everywhere you want. Also many walking distance options to lunch, dinner, have a drink or cofee. If you like nightlife, there's a lot of options to party just 2 or 3 blocks away (even that, the apartment and neighborhood is always quite and peaceful). Totally recommended. The only thing you will need: more time to enjoy it!

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Comfortable, peaceful and very conveniently located.

Guest: Karen (Nashua, NH)
Date of Stay: 10/12/10 Review Submitted: 10/31/10

We really enjoyed our stay and loved the peace and quiet of the deck and garden with it's soothing fountain sounds. Our kids live in the Mission and Inner Sunset so this is so central to both. Everything was as described both in relation to the rental and the location. The property made it comfortable and easy to cook and have everyone to "our place" for dinner several nights during our week long stay. We were so comfortable that we didn't want to go out. Mornings found me walking to 18th St and down to Guerrero for breakfast at Tartine. You must check this French bakery/eatery out! Awesome! Market St. and Castro is hub of public transportation. Walk up Castro to right on 15th and down to Noe (St.) where you'll find shops and cafes. Take a left and walk to the top of the street where you can catch the N train. This will take you directly west to Ocean Beach. Stop into the Java Beach cafe for good food and coffee before walking across to spend some time gazing upon the Pacific Ocean. We had lots of fun and delicious wine and nibbles at The Press Club downtown in a plaza off Market St. between 3rd and 4th (or 4th and 5th?). Around the corner from the apt. on Market is a nice restaurant called "Catch"-we had a great meal there. All in all we loved the experience of having our "own place" in the city. Only suggestions are to have some games on hand as there was only a pack or two of cards, and to update the tile in the bathroom. It was all very clean and comfy but the tiles need a good regrouting. I will definitely recommend this to all friends and relatives and anyone who wants easy access to city life but with the feeling of being at a cozy retreat.

Recommended for:Romantic getaway, tourists without a car, sightseeing, adventure seekers, girls getaway, age 55+, families with young children, families with teenagers.

Shammy Dab

Guest: Somer (Ayrshire, Scotland)
Date of Stay: 06/27/10 Review Submitted: 07/13/10

This is great wee apartment in the just up from Market and has easy transportation to anywhere in the city. The area has a massive variety of restaurants and drinking establishments and has a very safe feeling around nighttime when walking back and forth to the apartment. The apartment itself is very peaceful and quiet and the private deck at the rear of the property is fabulous to sit out in after a day walking around in the sun. The description, layout and amenities available were all as described in our original booking, although we would have to add that the beds are very hard which is only a personal preference. We didn't have any contact with the owners although the property was clean and well presented when we arrived with lovely orange lilies on the dining table. The Castro Theatre is a wonderful venue and has a great organ which provides some pre-movie entertainment before each performance. We can highly recommend La Mediterannee and the Woodhouse Fish Co and the Bagdad Cafe for places to eat around the area. And if ordering chinese takeaway, the Red Jade is excellent and definitely order the onion pancake and potsticker dumplings. If you want a slice of pizza after a movie then go to Marcelo's on Castro. Tasty pizza. The highlight of the week was observing the locals at their best, including two single spottings the of the greater naked man, followed by a final spotting of the wilder ice cream eating naken men trio sitting on the bench outside the whole food store on Market street. So if you're a family, maybe avoid this area, but great if you're a single man about town, or a couple of friends (like us) looking for something a wee bit different.

Recommended for:Romantic getaway, tourists without a car, sightseeing, adventure seekers, girls getaway, age 55+.

Best choice :)

Guest: Tatrix (Saarbrücken, Germany)
Date of Stay: 05/10/10 Review Submitted: 05/28/10

If you wanna go to San Francisco this apartment is your place to sleep! We just spent a week there and had a really good time! After exploring the city during the day it was nice to come back to this place that felt immediatly like home away from home! It's quiet in a really nice neighbourhood but at the same time it is (on foot) just minutes away from the beautiful little shops and nightlife at the castro district! The rest of the city is also easy gettable by public transportation. Right around the corner you will find stops for streetcar, busses and the metro!

Recommended for:Romantic getaway, tourists without a car, sightseeing.

Guest: Dawna Daniel (Avondale Estates, GA)
Date of Stay: 09/30/09 Review Submitted: 09/30/09

What a wonderful apartment! It is centrally located in action packed Castro with easy access to Muni transportation to reach other neighborhoods! Only a block walk to the catch the F line to chinatown or all the way down to the ferry building - the 33 will get you to mission (brunch at Los Jarritos on 20th & Van Ness is yummy!) The option to rent a garage parking spot was a luxury and let us not worry about finding a spot after a long day in wine country (Viansa is a red wine lovers dream!) San Francisco offers so much to see & do and each day when we ran out of steam it was a joy to come home to this apartment and sit out in the private garden and read or use the wi-fi to plan the next day's adventures. If you are reading this review you must be planning a trip to San Francisco - stop what you are doing, check the calendar and if available, reserve your time here - you will not regret it!

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Guest: Anonymous
Date of Stay: 05/13/09 Review Submitted: 05/13/09

Lovely garden apartment, private and quiet, yet a block from the lively Castro district and public transportation to anywhere in the city day and night. Walking everywhere was easy but, if you have a car, it is also easy to get out of the city to places North. The kitchen is so well equipped it was hard to decide whether to eat out at all the delicious neighborhood restaurants or go to the market and bring home all the fresh ingredients for dinners at home. Stayed up way too late watching DVD's from his collection from the comfort of our bed. Clean and bright thanks to the sky light and backyard garden. We were two but it felt spacious enough for 4. Having rented apartments both here and abroad for years as a comfortable way to spend a week or two in a city I would highly recommend Rob's apartment as the place to stay in San Francisco. Everything was as described in his listing with no unpleasant surprises and lots of extras. For us it was like staying at a friend's home Thanks Rob

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