El Constante — Hotel in Corpus Christi

My family and I booked for Easter weekend. We stayed in room 121 beachside. Andrea and Erica did a horrible job at cleaning and inspecting before our arrival. The room smelled muggy and like mildew. Gnats everywhere and in all rooms, especially the kitchen. Even found a dead gnat on the white bedroom comforter . Very unpleasant smell coming from fridge and freezer but baking soda boxes were used to “mask the smell” instead of hotel actually seeing what the problem was. I went to the front office within the first hour being there and asked for a cleaning. The front office guy heard my frustrations but didn’t give me a solution to the problem. Basically said the cleaning crew & manager are gone and would I classify this as an emergency? I told the front desk guy that I’m going to take time out of my vacation and buy cleaning supplies to clean the room I paid for! I mopped the floors, wiped down counter tops in living area & kitchen & wiped down the mildew smelling fridge. But wait there’s more, went to the bathroom & noticed huge red streaks & splotches on the shower curtain, bathroom walls, bottom bathtub border & the white bathroom door. How was that missed?! So disgusting! My immediate thought was blood. Went to bed and guess what? There was a red splotch on the bedroom wall by the nightstand! DISGUSTING. At that point vacation was over. Ruined. Went to front office early the next morning & spoke with Makayla who was actually very nice but kept stating she was new to this & would tell her manager & that I could come back once the office opens at 10. Went back at 10 & finally spoke with Cole who was passive and smiled at my frustration; I would even say he chuckled a few times! This was extremely frustrating & by that point Makayla had earlier texted my phone to ask for proof of the dirty room & to say someone was going to clean the room again. While I was out Andrea came by & told my husband that it’s very busy, that she had spoken to me and would wipe what needed to be cleaned and leave. This happened in all about 10 mins or less. First of all, I’m not sure why she lied bc I had not spoken to Andrea and she in fact did not wipe the red streaks from the restroom, shower curtain but did get the one by the bedroom nightstand & poured some liquid down the sink for the gnats. She then told my husband the fridge had been smelling like this for a YEAR and that’s why the baking soda boxes are in the fridge. What an excuse! I went back to the front office asking for an immediate solution and refund. Cole told me to wait till Monday. I called office 20 mins later and again Cole was passive, there’s not much he can do but request another cleaning and I could not speak with a higher up bc managers are not on call but they’re pretty responsive with messages. Makes no sense. 3rd cleaning request was placed & to change out old for new shower curtains. Why wasn’t this done prior to my stay? No explanation was given other than Andrea is usually pretty spot on and maybe she’s just feeling overwhelmed. Seriously?! Needless to say I wasn’t getting anywhere & I couldn’t switch rooms bc they were all booked. When I mentioned to Cole if he had seen the pictures he said he had not, Wow! Absolutely pathetic. While out another cleaner came and Cole left a voicemail stating curtains had been changed and cleaning had been done. Guess what!? Shower curtains still had red streaks when we came back. I have timestamped photos and videos for proof. HORRIBLE experience! Hospitality is not one bit in this companies forte. My family and I are never staying at this business again. Emails will be sent to corporate. The room needs to be updated, then deep cleaned. Do not recommend this...

I have been going to this place since I was very very young. 30 years now. I’ve long held it as one of the best places to visit with a family and encouraged others to do the same. But this recent visit broke my heart. I was so excited to take my wife and three young kids along with our beloved family dog to the cherished place of my youth. And let me say first that our hours on the beach with our pup were as delightful and picturesque as I could imagine. But getting in and out of our unit became a Hitchcock style nightmare due to the native birds that have dominated the area. Even on my first walk from the car to the front office to check in, these birds were diving in straight to my head. I found it unusual and improbable at first. Then it became the norm every time we came and went. I eventually could not come and go without an umbrella over my head because a minimum of 3-4 birds (Grackles, they’re called) would make contact.

They DID have a professional come address the nests. I saw the cherry picker the day after I called. This was appreciated. But the thing I cannot understand is why this was not disclosed in advance. Especially because all clues point to their prior knowledge of the issue. This was made known to me by the front desk employees and the reflective ribbon tied intermittently to ward them off, although there was none near our unit, next to the palm trees where they resided. And after I asked for this to be addressed, it never was.

The last straw was the moment my 10 year old son was trying to retrieve something from our unit and was attacked. He became terrified and did not want to go back out the door. And who can blame him because according to a front desk person the man who removed the nests came back with an open wound from the attacks of these native, and apparently protected birds.

It made our stay completely traumatic. And we asked to be compensated because of the lack of responsibility. My wife and I have humble incomes and save responsibly all year to take our family on a worthwhile vacation. This fell completely short of it.

The problems linger on as we had to frequently evacuate our children out of the pool while guests began lighting their blunts and becoming intoxicated in the pool courtyard, blasting their music. There was a complex-wide message sent to address the noise- but this does not forgive illegal behavior. This lack of attention to the conduct and behavior of guests has tremendously reduced its value so rapidly that I fear we may never return to a once lovely and enchanting getaway.

We complained directly to management about the grackle problems outside our unit, and for knowingly placing us in this “pet-friendly” unit when they knew the bird infestation was well established. We learned the apparent managers are completely powerless over the deity level mysteriousness of the owners. According to management, our contract states there are no refunds- which is untrue as that is only in the context of early departures and cancellations. Not in cases of extreme liability and physical danger on family vacation. They have refused our request to be compensated for our troubles.

We will never use Padre Escapes or stay with El Constante Condominiums ever again. And we will be having our attorney...

We stayed in unit 126. Found the place via VRBO and it was managed by Padre Escapes. I submitted the following review to VRBO via the link they send you after you stay. They did not post this review and subsequently seem to have taken down their listing of unit 126? Seems sketchy, maybe they'll prove me wrong. --===============================-- Original review below:

Note: if you're renting this from Padre Escapes they don't tell you but you check in at the office of El Constante - not Padre's main office up the street.

The staff at El Constante were pleasant and efficient, as was the maintenance man we interacted with for a clogged toilet.

I'll start with good: It's on the beach, the unit looks out (first at a parking lot) but primarily at the dunes which is nice, they allow dogs. The king size bed is large. The fridge was cold, as was the ac. The microwave worked. There is a car rinse right as you pull into the apartments which is a good feature. The pool was clear.

Now, the bad. It reeks of mildew - under the sink you can see where they've replaced the cabinet bottom with plywood but apparently, they didn't fix the actual leak. The bedding was dirty - there was hair throughout the king-sized bed. I saw some small bugs (tiny, almost transparent, squished when touched) but didn't see any evidence that they were bed bugs, so hopefully they were something else (fingers crossed). The hide-a-bed was absolutely FILTHY, so good thing the other bed was a king b/c my whole family of 4 slept in it the whole time. However, that mattress is so bad my 3yr old was complaining about her back! Both my wife and I were basically crippled for the first few hours of the day after sleeping on the king. The bedroom door won't close without slamming it (needs planed), there’s filth in all the unit's corners and tons of crud under the bed. The mismatched blue couch and chair are old but serviceable - but after looking at the condition of the hide-a-bed sitting in them gave me the crawls.

Overall, this unit would have been fine if it weren’t so gross. We weren't paying top dollar and we were at the beach to go to the beach, not to hang out in a room. That said, the bugs, filth and smell of this unit was unacceptable and made my vacation VERY stressful. The fact that Padre Escapes doesn't tell you where to check in is extremely...