Countryside Corporate Apartments — Hotel in Madison

First off, ignore the “Corporate” in the title Countryside Corporate Apartments. Anybody can rent an apartment. My husband and I rented a Jacuzzi suite at Countryside Apartments for the week before and a few days after our daughter’s wedding in Madison. An aunt and uncle rented a one bedroom apartment. We had everything we needed to bake 18 pies and lots of goodies for the desert table and store all the decorations, linens, etc. for the special day. The day after the wedding, we even hosted a brunch for the extended family at Countryside Apts. Those two refrigerators came in very handy! On the main floor of our Jacuzzi suite, there were 2 spacious bedrooms with king sized beds, a desk area with free internet, and lots of closets. The main floor also had a full bath, full kitchen, dining and living area and two TVs with gadgets. For the couple of days before the wedding, the twenty-somethings took over the lower floor that was set up with a full and 2 twin beds, and a large L-shaped couch and TV area. It was a bit cozy but wonderful to have everyone together. In fact, the bride left her own Madison apartment to stay with her sisters at our Countryside Apartment. The bedrooms had ceiling fans and the living area had an air-conditioner. We closed the drapes during the day to reduce solar heating and still slept well because temperatures dipped at night. We didn’t need to continuously run the air conditioner, but it might be under-powered during a real heat wave for such a large apartment This DIY wedding 400 miles from home was possible because the staff met our every need: answering numerous emails about the right size apartment before renting, finding extra bowls for baking, and pointing out the many amenities. For example, my younger daughter had a Skype interview for a new job the day before the wedding. She used their private business computer facility for the half hour interview…nailed it of course and flew to her on-site interview the next week! There is a game room decorated in U. of Wisconsin colors with billiards, ping pong and foosball. The grounds are well manicured with plantings and fountains. There are windowed gazebos and grilles for cooking with recently updated walkways. Each apartment has a private deck or balcony. I enjoyed watching the younger longer-stay moms hanging out with their children on the large playground and later in the week at the heated pool. No doubt they were making lasting friendships.

The website doesn’t do justice to the facilities. If the website describes the types of beds, etc. differently than you want, check with Connie and she’ll find ways to accommodate you. I rated it 5 stars because it was like home, so much better than a hotel, and a bargain. Although the clientele is mostly business rental for a few weeks to a month or more, consider it for any stay in Madison for more than a couple of days. For a seven night stay for 2 bedrooms, full kitchen, living and dining room, it comes to less than $35/bedroom/night! So, even if you stay half the week, you get a lot living space for less than a hotel. Highly recommended and I will stay there again if you haven’t booked...

My family and I were really lucky to find Countryside Apartments. We stayed for two weeks in one of their 2-bedroom apartments, and it was perfect. A much better option than all of us cramming into a single hotel room - which is what we did for several days before we found Countryside. Once we moved in, I couldn't believe the amount of space we had - the kids in their own room, a separate living room to hang out in, plus our apartment had a nice deck / back porch with a table and chairs as well.

The kitchen was well-stocked with dishes, pots & pans, full-sized fridge, oven, etc. so we were able to buy groceries and actually cook some meals at home, rather than existing on take-out everyday.

One downside compared to staying at a hotel, is that there was not a free continental breakfast, or anything like that, but again, having a full kitchen where we could easily prep a hot breakfast more than made up for that.

A few more notes about the property: there are a bunch of amenities, which really helped to keep the kids entertained. There is a huge yard in between the two buildings, where my kids played football and soccer (they borrowed the soccer ball from the Countryside staff). At one end of the property, there is also a nice wooden playground structure (swings, monkey bars, slide, etc) - which my kids explored a little, but would be perfect for younger children. There is also a nice walking path that circles the entire property, and goes through some really pretty woods that surround the grounds. Indoors, there is a huge game room with free-to-play pool / billiards (2 tables), ping pong, foosball, and air hockey. There is also a roomy and nicely-outfitted exercise room, which we could all comfortably use at the same time.

Because it was fall when we were there, we didn't use the swimming pool at all, but it looked nice, and is probably great to have if you stay in the summer!

On top of all the great features of Countryside Apartments, I also want to commend the wonderful friendly staff. I mainly worked with Connie, who went above and beyond to help us get moved in after normal business hours, always responded quickly to our requests or questions, and was just a generally nice person - very pleasant to work with! I met two other men in the front office as well, but didn't see them as often, so I don't remember their names, but they were also both very helpful - and as I mentioned above, they loaned a soccerball to my kids for them to kick around...

So let me start off by saying, if you are skeptical, don’t be. The manager (Connie) and her staff (Assistant Manager, housekeepers, maintenance, grounds keepers etc etc) really do go above and beyond to make sure your experience is well above and beyond, home away from home. As I really can’t say enough good about my experience here, during the summer they keep the grounds, pool, game room, and grilling areas very cleaned up and ready to go daily. During the winter you can nestle in your apartment after a long cold day and enjoy the fireplace, or go for a nice walk around the property and enjoy the snow. I love it here, it is fully equipped with everything you need, all you need to bring is you and your clothes they cover all of the rest, and they are updating each apartment with new carpets, beds, furniture, appliances, and more which really show that they want this place to be more than just the normal for a corporate apartment, and if ever you have a problem that needs to be addressed, Connie is the first one to help try to fix the situation regardless of what it may be. She really goes above and beyond to make sure everything runs just as smooth as it could possibly be. I definitely wouldn’t ever stay anywhere else other than here while being here for work or for play. The curtesy that all of the staff here show and give, well, it well surpasses anything else I have stayed in prior in madison. Thank you Connie, Robert, Carmen, Caleb, and the rest of the staff for making this experience such a wonderful one. I have so many favorite parts of this property at the end of the day that it’s hard to just choose one. But as a pet parent the space for my dog is one of the most important pieces of this property for me… everything else is just a bonus. Thank you everyone for making my stay truly a home away from...