La Unica

Clean place that is affordable Nice inside used to be a retirement home or something

I was in Austin for a contra dance weekend, so my focus was not on my hotel room. I needed a place to sleep and shower and generally this place supplied my needs, except for Saturday morning when there was no hot water. Plenty of hot water at 6 pm Saturday evening, though. The bed was softer than I'm used to, but the sheets were clean with no holes. However, there was no pillowcase--the pillows both had shams on them with no pillowcase underneath, so I covered the pillow with my housecoat. The only chair was a rolling office chair, which is difficult to sit in to put on shoes--I reached a little too far and it rolled out from under me, landing me firmly on the linoleum floor. TV, tiny fridge and tiny microwave all seemed to work fine and so did the window unit AC. The place is obviously an old nursing home, and more than a little spooky. The neighborhood is very poor, and Saturday night there was an unhoused person yelling obscenities at the top of his lungs. But he didn't come onto the property. The desk clerk said if he had, then they would call the police. They require a $50 deposit and I wanted to pay cash, but the clerk said she would not give me a receipt for the cash, so I put it on a debit card. At check-out they said I'd get the deposit back in about 3 days. The lobby had an interesting surprise--some excellent magazines--National Geographic and the Quarter Horse Journal. I should have explored the lobby sooner!

Stay was okay overall. The building is extremely creepy. Not sure if it used to be a nursing home or hospital, but very odd layout & feel. Toilet leaked from the bottom after every flush. No hot water in shower. Gnats in bathroom.

I believe this hotel used to be a school. There is no shower in the room you have to go down the hall to a room that has 3 showers in it that just has curtains. Like a locker room. There was a live roach crawling on my bed. Live roach in shower area too. The front desk clerk was super nice.

Upon arrival, my husband asked me “is this an abandoned nursing home?” We immediately wanted to leave but since it was really late into the evening we decided to stay at least one night since the room was already paid for. When walking into the building you get that feeling that yes it is an abandoned nursing home. The lady at the front desk, who I can only assume is the owner, was extremely friendly. The rooms are decent enough. The bed, in my opinion, was extremely comfortable. The rooms come with a toilet and sink but no shower. The showers are a community shower down the hall. You can lock the shower so you have the whole area to yourself but not having the shower in the room was an inconvenience. There were some roaches in the shower area that we could have done without. Our corridor smelt of cigarette smoke. Again, the lady at the front desk was extremely friendly, she stated that she stayed up late for us to get back one evening so she could give us our towels we asked for (we didn’t want anyone going into our room). She is really the reason my husband and I decided to complete our stay there. The place just needs some TCL, maintenance wise. The rooms did have a retro style microwave and mini fridge, the air conditioning worked great. The front entrance was clean and for what you pay for it truly wasn’t a bad experience.

Stayed here twice so far and intend on continuing to stay here for myself and my spouse's once-a-month visits to Austin. Honestly, we were a little surprised our first day when we realized the shower was communal, but going to the showers during the late night meant we didn’t run into anyone. The bed is honestly the best part about this hotel. I stayed in two different rooms between this month and last month and the bed was HEAVENLY both times. Check-in process was a little confusing, Annie at the front was a little perplexed when we said we checked in online, but I think we got the hang of it, and things got straightened out! Works fantastic for our short stays!

It looks like a halfway house - reeks of ****, stuffy, the lights didn't work, the bathroom didn't have any shower or bathtub. The neighborhood is straight out of The Wire.

As long as you ask for a room with a bathroom you'll be good. Shower rooms are community showers and its first come first serve and they lock if you don't feel safe.

The rooms are nice but not every room had a shower. I did not like the community shower they had. The staff were all very nice. The neighborhood is a little rough but I had no problems coming and going. They did not change my trash can the entire time there either but I did not ask. I would go back but they need to make the rooms non-smoking.