Villa Del Sol — Attraction in Corpus Christi

Before I begin, the host texted me the day of our checkout and said

“Kindly leave us a review for support if your experience was positive. We truly appreciate it! Please note Airbnb community thinks anything less than a 4.8 out of 5 rating review to be poor.”

I consider what she said to be an attempted guilt trip. I also believe that her suggestion to us goes against Air B&B policy.

Here now is our review:

We stayed in a unit at Villa del Sol mid December 2024. The unit was good and had everything we needed for a week’s stay including nice touches of icy beer mugs and an ice pack in freezer, beach paraphernalia, a first aid kit, pots and pans, salt and pepper, coffee, tea, and shampoo and shower gel. The bedroom was small but the bed was comfortable and the bunks we used for our luggage and things. The reclining chairs were very nice and the Roku TV was great for watching whatever we wanted.

Although the unit was not close to many retail choices there was a fun bar on the beach called Fajitaville where we enjoyed some beer and margaritas one night. The walk along the beach was also a nice morning activity for us and the area is safe and other visitors we met were very friendly. Portland is a short drive away where we did our grocery shopping. The staff at the registration desk were very nice as well, and our Air B&B host, was good to accommodate an early check in for us..

Although the unit met our needs and was very affordable, the building itself needs a lot of work and felt somewhat unsafe and I am surprised that very few other reviewers on AirB&B make any mention of this. It could be because the host sends a text requesting a high rating. There are staff working all day and have been for at least a year from what I understand but it feels like they still have a lot of work ahead of them. Hallways are grim and in bad need of paint and lighting. The hallway floors are either cracked concrete or covered with plywood to cover up the unstable concrete. Workers have opened holes in first floor hallway ceilings and when you look up into the hole you can see how the hallway floor above is rotting. The deck off our rental, although a nice place to sit, sloped at a slightly uneasy angle making it feel a bit unsafe. Even the kitchen floor has a distrustful bounce to it. The biggest worry is that their fire alarm system is down so there is no automatic mechanism alerting residents if there were a fire and I understand it has been like this for some time. Lucky for us the elevator in our building was working but we understand one of the other buildings does not have a working elevator. Also interesting that elevator licenses are not displayed in the elevator.

I know the items in the last paragraph are beyond our hosts control however we felt these necessary...

Hello. We have now checked into the condo #2205.

First, the place is adequate for sleeping - actually visiting in this small space for four adults is impossible. While I know most people spend most of their time on the beach, today it rained and it wasn't possible so we had to remain in the condo. It was quite uncomfortable to try to seat FOUR adults and I cannot imagine trying to seat six as your description says.

The condo was quite dirty. The kitchen table had to be wiped down as it had hair and crumbs on it. The towels - four for four adults and two nights were not sufficient - not to mention how old and dingy they were.

But!!!!! To my HORROR when we pulled out the sofa bed there were dirty sheets on the bed!!!! That was totally disgusting! And unacceptable!

The front door will not close properly. The dishes in the cabinet were dirty. The oven is impossible to even get to and the MAIN reason for this decision to get a condo was so we could eat here!!

The maintenance/housekeeping crew taking care of your property is terrible !!!! TERRIBLE! The ac vents are falling down and the ceiling fans are filthy - I doubt they have EVER been cleaned. The "sleeper sofa" mattress and base are so old that when my 110lb daughter laid on it ALONE, she fell through the bed! We had to pull the mattresses off the "bunk beds" just to make it comfortable. And, by the way the bunk beds or only wide enough for a toddler. The top one bunk is too dangerous for a toddler! The toilet was dirty. It took my daughter over 30 minutes to run the water to get two inches!! of water in the bath tub! She gave up without a bath!!!

Again. I know this business first hand and this would be absolutely unacceptable in my properties.

I feel a full refund is due- at the very least a partial refund! I feel like I've been short-changed in many ways. It is dirty, WAY TOO SMALL for even FOUR people, not well managed and not well maintained. I would imagine it would not even pass a health inspection. Our plans were to come here and decide whether or not we could come back in the next month with my other daughter and son-in-law but i'm afraid to now as this has not made a good first...

IF YOU MAKE A COMMENT PLEASE GIVE A NAME AND THE CONDO NUMBER. Every unit here is individually owned . I have owned one of the condos for 30 years now. I have even been on the board. I advertise on VRBO and Trip Advisor. I am transparent on those websites that the complex is under very slow repair due to new management. I show pictures of the complex at its worst 10 years ago or so. I have 4 and 5 star reviews.

Almost all the reviews on those websites are great about the condos themselves and the owners (clean, owner helpful, honesty, etc). But for the past 15 years one owner has gotten the most bad reviews. It is obvious that the good reviews for this owner are not real.

This person told me that if the sheets smell good, you do not need to change them. This person has been seen only cleaning with a broom and sweeping it under the refrigerator. I spoke to one of this owners guests who said they rented a condo from hell. I saw it with fixtures hanging and holes in the wall and black mold (told she will never get a refund). I showed them mine and they were amazed. This is one review I saw on trip advisor an exact quote: "pay half now pay half a week later so you pay $700 now and once you move in and realize how dirty it is its to late to move out. So you're either out $700 for a week stay or you ride it out and pay the other $700. During our stay our bed SHEETS WERE DIRTY when we arrived, there wasn't a broom, mop, a sink plug to do dishes, THE COUCHES WERE RIPPED. There was MOLD in the bathroom" This one owner is Reprehensible and has the most bad reviews. One person ruins it for everyone. I think everyone should avoid this person and if they can't, dispute the charges on your credit card, which you should always use. Even though I know this information to be true, I will not put the name as this owner goes by several alias anyway. Rent on a reputable web site and read reviews and don't fall for this...