We had a reservation for a little over 6 weeks at Apartment Terra. We let Miranda know on the second day (more than a month's notice) that we wanted to cut two weeks off of our stay. Miranda offered no partial refund, but said she would re-list the apartment, and if it rented, we could receive money back for those two weeks. Well, we found out after she had left for her vacation, two weeks later, that she never re-listed the apartment, despite saying she would. It was not an oversight. I attached a photo of her reply when queried about this. "Only bookings on request". Renters will not request a property if it shows no availability! We felt that this was dishonest and she should have just told us upfront she wasn't re-listing it.Apt Pros:--Miranda picked us up at the airport. That was nice.--There is a washing machine outside at the back of the property. That was great to have.--There is a pool.--The A/C works well in the bedrooms.--There is a cleaning service 1X week, which also was nice/unexpected.--The shower handle was broken when we got there. It would fall off in pieces. Miranda arranged for a plumber to replace it.--The porch is shady.--One of her cats (Sir Richard) is adorable. He was the highlight of our time there!Cons:--Some of the furniture in Apt Terra is in pretty rough shape. The sofa has ripped fabric and the stuffing comes out. The fridge has seen better days. There were only a few pots/pans, and the handle on the one pan that did not have scratched off non-stick was so loose, I thought it would break off at any minute. The handle on the small kettle actually did break off. The mattresses were VERY old--the springs would poke into your back and there was no padding on top of the mattresses. There was just a sheet on top of old, hard, threadbare spring mattresses, two of which were heavily stained.--There is a lot of debris left in the yard and small storage areas-- broken wicker table, fake decorative pieces, empty cardboard boxes, etc.--There is no A/C in the living room so you have to leave the doors open for air. When making breakfast or lunch, the flies were SO bad, I had to keep covering everything I made throughout the whole cooking process. And I am not talking about 5 or 6 flies--there would be like 30 aggressive flies trying to get at your food. Surprisingly, the flies would often be absent at dinnertime, so usually you could make dinner without getting attacked by flies.--She has two very sweet dogs. The only issue is that they bark, A LOT, and join in with the other barking dogs in the neighborhood all day and into the evening. You can set your clock by them. They start again at 7:20am!--Miranda's friend was in charge of the property for a few weeks while Miranda was on vacation. Her friend brought her own large dog. Within a few days, the whole property smelled like dog urine and feces. My husband picked up dog poo on three separate occasions. He then mentioned to the dog's owner where there were other piles of it, and she began to pick up more.--The dogs are allowed to urinate on the porch above the Terra apartment, and this got even worse with the third large dog there. About once or twice a week, the porch upstairs was hosed off, and it would rain down water mixed with dog urine, splashing onto our porch. We would use a hose to try and wash away/dilute the urine, but the whole property smelled strongly of urine most of the time. Even if you tried to use the pool, it just smelled like strong dog pee all around it. It was NOT as bad prior to the third, large dog staying on-property.--Not Miranda's fault, but most of the guests sharing our porch area were smokers, separated only by a privacy fence. They were lovely people, but the smoke wafted onto our side of the porch, and it would come in our apartment through the windows that opened onto their side. I only mention this because if cigarette smoke bothers you, it may be an issue depending on the other guests.--Both the apt and the property need investment.--I counted down the days until we could leave...
