Altaire — Local services in Washington

Altaire may bill itself as a "luxury" apartment, but what it actually offers is bare bones and lack of basic communication from management only adds insult to injury. The office exists solely to promote the apartment and get people to sign on. Once the lease is signed, you are on your own to figure out and follow up on any problem identified. Management is inefficient, inept, apathetic and opaque -- good luck trying to get any resolution or compensation for your troubles.

Something is always broken here -- the elevators, gym equipment, HVAC, or the trash/recycle chutes (which leads to trash piling in the rooms). These things stay broken for MONTHS at a time and you will receive /no/ communication from management regarding timeline for a fix. No one seems to know anything and no one cares enough to provide temporary solutions either.

Altaire provides its own in-unit Wi-Fi, which you are REQUIRED to pay for at $85/month. The ISP is Single Digits (google them to see what a joke that company is too) and the connection is weak, slow and often drops. Even if you get internet from a reputable provider like Verizon (which offers a more robust service at $75/mo), you still have to pay the service fee to Altaire.

Our internet has been dead for a week (and is STILL unresolved!) and management refuses to prorate us for the time we have been without Wi-Fi. We have had to reach out to Single Digits directly to even get a ticket issued to address the outage. Neither Single Digits or Altaire is communicating to each other or initiating communication so I've had to figure everything out myself (and communication with Single Digits has been a joke as well).

DO NOT rent here if you work remotely or run a business from home; Altaire cannot guarantee that you will always have internet nor will they even attempt to provide a temporary solution for you like a hotspot device.

If you couldn't tell already, communication from management is a joke. You will always be left wondering on if any problem you discovered will be fixed. Emails take forever to get answered and even confronting office staff in person results in nothing more than "I don't knows" or sometimes just factually wrong information.

The condition of our apt upon move-in was a joke. When we toured our unit, we pointed out scuffs on the wall, general grime and broken shelving units -- we were assured that this would all be fixed before our move-in. That was a lie and we had to file 10+ separate maintenance requests to fix problems we already identified during the tour.

You are responsible for communal apt utilities in addition to your own. This was not disclosed to us during our tour and easily adds $100+/month in fees so keep that in mind.

The 5 star reviews left here are mostly for maintenance. Maintenance crew gives you QR codes to review their fixes and scanning the QR code conveniently leads to posting Google reviews for the apartment, which helps boost Altaire's overall rating. The fact they engage in this scummy, deceptive ploy to increase their Google ratings speaks volumes about their (lack of) integrity.

Please stay AWAY from Altaire. I understand that it's normal for things to get broken from time to time as a result of general use, but the disinterest and inability of management to even try to rectify and resolve problems is disgraceful and not worthy of the luxurious facade of this property. Management certainly is not proactive in anticipating problems nor are they reactive; they simply do nothing, which is inexcusable considering the exorbitant rent we pay.

In fact, I would recommend AGAINST living in any LCOR managed property in the DMV (for another example of astonishing incompetence, google Cielo). They seem to uniformly suffer from the same problems: poor/non-existent communication; mandatory Single Digits internet; constant broken amenities and services; and poorly constructed buildings worsened by unhelpful,...

I strongly advise against moving into this apartment building. I have waited to write this review to ensure I was not posting an emotional response but it truly feels each day that goes on, I have to deal with a new issue at this apartment.

Here are the issues I’ve encountered since moving in at the end of January (less than a month ago):

Move-In Condition: The unit was not properly cleaned, with sticky floors that delayed my move-in by two days. Frequent Maintenance Problems: I have filed 9 (NINE) maintenance requests so far, involving both bathroom sinks, the dishwasher, the refrigerator’s ice machine, the kitchen stove, and the clothes dryer (which still leaked after it was replaced). A few of the maintenance requests have raised serious safety concerns including uncontrollable flames from the stove, melted plastic in the dishwasher, and uncontrollable HVAC. Management Concerns: While the maintenance staff has been helpful in taking care of the issues, management has not offered any form of compensation or resolution for these persistent issues. In fact 4 weeks have passed since our first issue and they have not followed up with any forms of communication and potential solutions to remedy this nightmare of a move in. Package Room: The package room is always a mess making it so hard to find packages. One of mine showed delivered and has yet to be found 3 weeks later. I ultimately ended up remedying the situation with the shipper. EV Charging: The fees for EV chargers are higher than paying for a supercharger during peak hours lol for what?? Unreliable Mandatory Internet thats $85/month: The building’s internet service goes in and out daily. Because I work from home, I had to pay for a separate Fios connection thats an additional $90/ month , bringing my total monthly internet cost to $175.

Overall, I truly regret my decision to move here. If you are considering moving here, take this as your SIGN to find a different building. Unfortunately, I truly cant find one good thing to say about my experience here.

EDIT: MAINTENANCE ORDER #10 just went out today. HVAC went out and there is no heat. Still no responses from management. Every major appliance has had an issue in my unit. DO NOT RENT THIS PLACE. Mind boggling to me that not a single person from management has reached out to address any of these issues. Actually pathetic

UPDATE: After seeing my review, management finally reached out to “remedy” the situation. I thought, “Better late than never—let’s try to start fresh.” Boy, was I wrong. As if it couldn’t get any worse, on Wednesday (March 5), we attended a meeting—requested by management—to discuss potential fixes. Upon arrival, we were informed that the regional manager, who was supposed to join, was “too busy” in his office and wouldn’t attend. Instead, we met with the residence services manager, who was completely unprepared. We spent 45 minutes re-explaining all our hardships from the beginning, including the possibility of transferring units, mutually terminating the lease, or receiving some form of reimbursement. She told us she would discuss these options with her managers and get back to us by Friday.

Today, we received an email stating, “While we are unable to alter the terms of the lease for an early termination without penalty or approve a transfer at your current rate, we do want to make an effort to show our commitment to improving your experience moving forward... We would like to offer you a complimentary Wash + Fold/Dry Cleaning service...” In other words, after we took time out of our workdays to discuss serious, ongoing issues, their grand solution was a dry-cleaning coupon. BFFR.

This response is beyond disappointing. It feels like a complete dismissal of our concerns—an insult to the time and effort we’ve invested just trying to make this place livable. Let me say it again: this building is horrendous—DO NOT rent here. I regret the decision to move here...

My wife and I booked a stay here through a third party company (Global Luxury Suites) and it was beyond a horrendous and taxing experience. The front desk serviceman was rude, arrogant, indifferent and flagrantly disrespectful. We arrived, checked in and went back to the vehicle to retrieve our things, While walking back in through the lobby the front desk serviceman loudly and rudely informed us that he had to confiscate our Keys because he received an email stating we could not be checked in. To no fault of his own, GLS severely fouled up our reservation, charged us $690 for a three night stay and then "claimed" they couldn't verify my billing address after we were charged and received our keys. HOWEVER, There is always a considerate and compassionate way to handle customer service issues that don't involve 1. Boasting to a resident who was at the front desk alongside us, detailing our situation and what was going on , 2. Rudely telling us to stand back away from the desk as he proceeded to loudly handle our business on the phone with a GLS representative whilst he allowed the resident to stand there and take part in the conversation 3. Continue to scoff and gesticulate aggressively at us for repeatedly asking to speak with someone while he continued to over talk us. And what really spun my wheels, my wife stated that we would not return the keys until we got all of our belongings from the room, the front desk serviceman proceeded to tell the representative on the phone "SHE IS REFUSING TO GIVE THE KEYS" after this, I completely became unglued! I asked him how dare you sit on the phone and tell her we said we are refusing to give the keys back without mentioning the latter statement which was "until we retrieve our things". The fact that he intentionally created a hostile exchange by selectively omitting a key point was beyond me and was a clear trigger to me. His indifference and arrogance was unwarranted and unappreciated. With the climate we live in, something done as such, with malice could have been construed as a noncompliance that may have gotten the police involved. As a travel nurse who drove over three hours and came to the area to service and help the local hospital over run with Covid, I felt extremely disrespected and disappointed to be treated with such callous. As to not be remiss, that resident who walked up to the desk had a bag of food and stood there laughing with this man and talking without him extending the same ugly attitude we had just experienced and that gentleman was not rudely asked to step back away from the desk due to "social distancing" like he had done us. He deserves to lose his job and I pray someone watches the cameras with audio to witness what we did first hand! When I calmly told him that it would really serve him to show compassion in Lieu of irritation at our inconvenience he stood up in a threatening manner and continued to poke his chest out saying oh well I was talking to my friend so if that bothers you oh well! The audacity! I swear I will remember this forever and will make it a point to tell my network of travel nurses and doctors to NEVER book with Global luxury suites and to Damn Sure never consider renting an apartment...