Zilker Park Boat Rentals — Attraction in Austin

Absolutely horrible service. I had my two-year-old son for weekend visitation. Just happened upon this place...we were dressed in street clothes because we were not planning on attempting kayaking so we looked obviously outta place to begin with. I'm from Austin but haven't used these rentals in over a decade but regularly refer friends here for an Austiny experience. I told the worker that we had never been there and had no idea about the pricing or the safety. The overweight blonde lady with the snooty attitude (that she would no doubt claim is "upbeat" but is really just her elation at getting to play a "petty tyrant") was working the register and she explained that it was $18 an hour and after so many hours it moved to full day. I checked about a locker and we set it up and then we were sort of just shuffled off towards the water with the wave of a hand. There was no one there to help direct us or get us life jackets or tell us which oar to use. We figured it out on our own and the gentleman in the water, docking and launching canoes & kayaks, helped us pick one out (great job, btw!) and we were off. Kiddo had enough really quick & 20 minutes later I was back in line to pay thinking I'd be spending $7 or $8 bucks due to the $18/hr price....That's when she told me it was $18 no matter how many minutes you were in the water. I showed my disbelief and respectfully told her that it had not been clearly stated to me that way and if there was a one-hour minimum I believe it should have been communicated and surely posted.. She shrugged her shoulders and with no inflection in her voice said that that was too bad & the prices are what they are. When we were done paying I leaned over the register and in the softest voice possible told her that they should really explain to people that there is a one-hour minimum for transparency sake if they truly wanted to serve their customers better. She smiled an evil, toothy smile to show me that she did not care one iota and, avoiding an apology yet again, told me, "Thank you for the feedback." Not one time did somebody say "Sir, so sorry for the misunderstanding. We will try to communicate that better in the future. Thank you so much for the business and bringing your toddler to enjoy part of your weekend with us. We really hope to see you again soon."

And so they won't see us again. We just moved back from DC and have an army of friends who love outdoor adventures. And we all have kids and we all care about great service. Terrible job,...

I had the worst experience I have ever had trying to rent anything! Overpriced and rude as ever. Will never go again. I went there yesterday with me and two other people which we had two paddle boards and one paddle we brought down to the beach area of the rental spot. My friend went to the front to rent an all day paddle board and an extra paddle bc we forgot one at home. She is at the front trying to purchase this when we grab a paddle and wait by the water (knowing we are renting this). Then the lady who was at the front comes down and accuses us of stealing and says we need to leave their area bc we can’t put our paddle boards in the water next to our friend who’s renting. Then stops my friend we sitting there with her ID and money and my car keys (seeing if they would hold them) waiting… then will not rent to her bc she decided we went trust worthy. Doesn’t make sense when we are giving her every means to think we wouldn’t steal by giving you our financial info and possessions. Id be horrified if this was my employee pushing away a profit for my business and treating people so condescendingly without any validity as to why. On that nobody tried to steal anything in any way. We just wanted to rent in an honest manner. Wish they had a...

I've been renting canoes from here my whole life. It's a last vestige of old Austin and I'm glad it's still around. There's been a lot of noise about the recent change of hands and long-standing staff being let go. It's well known to have been a place people could find a decent paying job when they had trouble fitting into a more traditional working environment, which is great. We need more places like that. However, having said that, I think the original owner was a little too forgiving when it came to how the workers were allowed to treat customers. I cannot recall a time I was there in over forty years that staff wasn't dismissive if not outright rude. I hope the new owner realizes the importance of treating both employees and customers with respect. My review would be five stars except they continue with being cash only. In this day and age, it's a terrible...