Cozy and Affordable Retreat--Minutes from Downtown, Barton Springs

We loved the studio. Great location and loved having a kitchen. The only negative is it's in need of a mattress upgrade.

This little studio is absolutely fabulous. The neighborhood is wonderful. Close to so many fun things to do. It is the perfect place to be if you want to hike the Barton Creek Greenbelt trail.

My wife and I have stayed in several HomeAway properties in central Texas, and while this one was in a nice quiet neighborhood, with lots of character, and the spaces around the exterior of the house were nice, I doubt we would repeat here.

Our biggest issue was the extremely small bathroom. I'm not an overly large person - 34 inch waist - and I had to turn sideways to get into the smaller than a telephone booth shower. Also, while using the shower I discovered the hard way that it didn't have an anti-scald valve when another guest in one of the other suites flushed a toilet and the shower got almost dangerously hot in a split second. And it's tough to jump out when the opening is narrower than your shoulders. -2 stars here

Also, I assume because of the multi-tenant nature of the property, the exterior lights are on a timer, and cannot be manually controlled. That's fine, if the curtains can block the light, or if you are a late night party goer who gets to bed after light out, but that's not us, and our unit didn't have curtains that dense. The result was like trying to sleep with a really bright nightlight. Not too great. -1 star here - (I'd have only done a half, but that's not an option.)

So, would we recommend it to friends or relatives? Unless you are a 20-something hell bent on attending SXSW or ACL Fest, willing to stay anywhere, probably not. With the various fees and taxes added in, it would have only cost slightly more to stay at a hotel and given the issues, more comfortable.

Even though this property is in the heart of south Austin and so close to everything on Lamar & So Congress, it is in a perfectly quiet little neighborhood. Everything we needed was there, even to the point were there was some construction next door and owner provided us with a white noise machine, just in case there was any construction noise. Thankfully there wasn't! I wouldn't say this is a rental where you would spend a lot of time, as there was no 'living room' but why would you want to sit around in your room in Austin?! It was the perfect, cozy place to relax & come-and-go. Definitely going to keep this property in my back pocket for future trips!

There was a little confusion regarding the length of my stay, but Ann made a wonderful effort to provide more than sufficient accommodations. the lodging was clean and in a convenient location.