I rented a vacation rental through Stan Properties about 4 weeks ago. Now that I'm over the shock of my horrible experience, I've worked up the strength to review it on TripAdvisor in hopes that no one else has to suffer similar misfortune.

Here's my sad tale (and I recommend using Suite Home Chicago instead):

I just rented a Stan Properties condo at One Superior Place (a fantastic location, great building, nice views, and - fortunately - clean linens). But the place was so unsanitary that I never used the kitchen (which is 1/2 the point of staying at a vacation rental rather than a hotel), and I couldn't use my own unit's bathroom facilities until 2 full days after I checked in!!!

Fortunately there was a shower in the building's gym, but it was highly time-consuming and ridiculously inconvenient for me to bring my toiletries 55 stories down to a public shower to get ready in a public bathroom while being charged full rental price for a condo in the same building.

What's worse - yes, it gets worse - is that I had to make repeated calls several times a day for each of the 5 days I was renting, just to try and get some customer service!

Only after constant hounding did I manage to get Stan Properties to:

- Properly clean the bathroom and kitchen (which upon check-in looked like someone had just used it for a week - replete with pubic hairs on the shelf by the bedroom window). YUCK!!!
---- (Note that the person they sent to clean was actually using toilet paper without cleanser to clean the bathroom sink! When I caught him doing that and asked him what cleanser he was using, he said he'd have to go to his supply closet and get some cleanser - which he did. So you can see why the bathroom looked so bad in the 1st place!)

- Provide extra rolls of toilet paper - which ran out 2 days into my 5-day visit. (Why wouldn't they have left enough behind in the 1st place - especially given that the cleaning person mistook massive amounts of toilet paper for cleanser and sponge???)

- Give me a refund of some sort for ALL these hassles. In fact, Relu of Stan Properties promised some financial restitution (I had requested a refund of 2 nights' rent). But Relu never called about it, never returned my calls, and relayed through one of the phone receptionists (Monique) that he'd refund me like $50. Note that the cleaning fee was $60, so an offer of less than that obviously was just plain offensive.

In the end, it was only Monique who demonstrated any sense of customer service. She and I spoke several times after I returned to San Francisco. I was calling to try and speak to Relu re: the restitution I requested. Monique actually was sympathetic to my situation and granted me the equivalent of a free day's rent - despite Relu's ridiculously cheaper offer. She even ran the credit to my charge card while I was on the phone to make sure the refund went through.

Long story short: do NOT deal with Stan Properties! And I think Monique deserves to work at a far better company.

Moral of the story: Suite Home Chicago is supposed to be a much better vacation rental agency. I'll definitely use them for my next condo rental at One Superior Place instead.