Stay Charlottesville

Just returned from a great weekend with Stay Charlottesville. My friends and I rented the Downtown Belle and absolutely loved it. The home had a number of great common spaces to relax in with friends and everything was well decorated. The yard was tidy and fenced with convenient parking spots behind the house. The house is less than a ten minute walk from the downtown mall so we thought the location was great. The only one downside was that the master bedroom was definitely nicer than the other two bedrooms, it had a king size bed, new bathroom and was nicely appointed. The other two rooms were smaller, queen sized beds, not as well appointed and shared a bathroom. The two other rooms were still perfectly comfortable and everyone in or group was happy but it’s something to keep in mind if planning a weekend with friends or other couples. The Downtown Belle is still an awesome rental, we would definitely return and recommend Stay Charlottesville to friends!

Beware – false advertising ahead!
We stayed at the Downtown property for our 10 year anniversary. It boasts a «short walk» to downtown mall and is in a «historic neighborhood.» 768 Ridge is the location (which they don’t give you until they’ve taken all your money).
The walk is misleading. We walked, on average, 6 miles a day. Wow! Nice weather for it, lucky for us, but if it were cold and we found ourselves driving downtown to park the car, we would have been very disappointed with the «short walk to downtown» described in the listing.
This «short walk» was over 1 mile to get downtown — at least 20 minutes if you hurry.
This carriage house is in what one local inappropriately described as a neighborhood that used to be on the wrong side of the tracks and they are working to push those people out further. «Those people» happen to be black, by the way, and are being surrounded by new construction I’m imagining most cannot afford. So they live in section 8 housing, segregated from everyone else. Now, being from Philadelphia and working with inner-​city youth, I noticed the neighborhood was a bit neglected and immediately could tell it was from the income disparity that is so ignored today. So in this way, I am so very glad Stay Charlottesville sugar coats where they have built this place to accommodate folks from out of town, but sure hope they aren’t gentrifying the neighborhood with their neighbors.
Inside, we enjoyed the space very much – it was light and airy and clean.
Sadly, the amenities were low. Couldn’t we have at least found coffee filters for coffee? Nope. And they didn’t even respond to an email about it while we were there. Where is the nearest grocery store to buy filters first thing in the morning… we shouldn’t have to Google that.
The deck was a disaster. Looked like a tornado had just hit and you forgot to clean it up. Couldn’t you have prepared your guests for the gorgeous weather? What a mess!
All told, we enjoyed our time in Charlottesville, our first visit. We certainly left less than pleased with our experience where we stayed.

Crossfields property:
There ended up being four more people in the group than expected (it was a birthday weekend and more women showed up). Our group member couldn’t turn them away– they brought air mattresses and everything.
Long story short, the property owner who lives next to the rental took photos of all our cars and TEXT them to our group member. I have never heard of any property management company allowing home owners to communicate like this, or at all for that matter.
It was strange and unnerving for our group member to receive MULTIPLE passive aggressive text messages. It was really a huge downer on the day. Everyone was stressed out while our group member was off trying to communicate with the home owner by phone. They weren’t answering, only texting, which was really strange and confusing, so our group member went to the house to reach out and mend the situation.
The door was slowly closed in her face– they refused to communicate with her.
Listen, we had a really laid back group, and we just wanted to relax and have a good time, but the property we paid $ 1500 a night for was ruined by the home owners bizarre behavior.
The worst part is, instead of apologizing to us for such a terrible interaction they held $ 1000 of the deposit because of the four unexpected guests. NOTHING in the house was damaged. Everything was just as we found it.
Actually, cleaner. Which leads me to the next topic:
I was not going to say this because I was embarrassed for the home owner (clearly that’s not possible considering her behavior) but they did not clean any spider webs from the patio or outdoor areas or skim the pool. Luckily, I arrived before the rest of our group so I cleaned all the patio furniture and skimmed the pool. I’m an outdoors person so I wasn’t too freaked out. But there were spider eggs and spiders all over all the chairs.
Here’s my tip for Stay Charlottesville: The most gorgeous properties do not matter if you have no customer care. Your home owners represent your brand. Keep that in mind.

Working with Stay Charlottesville was a dream. They helped me find a home that would work for my out of town guests and made the planning and payment extremely simple.
My family stayed at «Belmont Belle» this past week. The house was perfect for 6 couples. Everyone was so impressed with the location, comfort, and décor.
The location was absolutely perfect — 2 minutes walk from Downtown and Belmont.
I cannot recommend their services enough!

My family and I had a phenomenal experience at «Belmont Belle». The house was perfect and the staff at Stay Charlottesville demonstrated the highest level of customer service. While searching for a home to host my family during graduation weekend, the staff at Stay Charlottesville contacted me directly when a suitable property opened up. Both the staff and the home owner were very accommodating of my family’s needs. The home was spacious and ideal. It charmed all of my friends and family who celebrated my graduation with me. Stay Charlottesville is a true gem and I look forward to renting with them on ALL of my future trips back to C’ville.

Maybe because of the 11÷5÷2013 review below, Stay Charlottesville called to let me know about the construction site and construction noise because we had reserved that same downtown Lex house. Because there were no other houses that they could offer, Kathryn made an exception to all of the rules and let us cancel the contract. She said that the owner preferred to let us know about the problem and release us from the contract rather than have us suffer through a reallybad stay. I
thought it was an amazing act of goodwill to save us from a terrible experience (like the other people apparently had). The few days my family and I had in Charlottesville were related to a very special family event and it would have been really awful to be in the noisy house. I am INCREDIBLY grateful to Kathryn of Stay Charlottesville and the owner for passing up the money and being honest with us. It’s not really their fault if there is a construction site next door but on the human level, it certainly is correct to tell people before they get there. THANK YOU to Stay Charlottesville.

Stay Charlottesville does it right. Already winning simply by being in Charlottesville, they make something great even greater. Their home selections and locations are ideal. If you are local looking for space for out of town guests or if you are a visitor to town, there is no question that Stay Charlottesville is the way to go. They provide luxury homes and apartments that are convenient to wherever you need to be. Always excited to check what exciting new properties are being added to their selections.
The homes I have visited are immaculate and stylish. They have the perfect spots for everyone… be it in town or those looking for country living. And their service is excellent. Hands down the best way to stay in Charlottesville for any period of time.

Buyer beware. We did not have a great experience at a property they handle at 1021 Locust Ave. the place was infested with ants, very limited kitchen stuff (plates, silverware, etc.), limited bedding, strange layout for the space. The worst was that the cable was out and the WiFi was intermittent. The owner showed up to let us know the cable would be fixed. Of course, it wasn’t. We bailed two days early. The staff at StayCharlottesville was less than helpful. Travis informed us that it was our fault. Hmm, we will be taking our business elsewhere from now on.
Stayed briefly in December 2012.