How About Some Identifying Info
1036,
How about identifying the apt. By address so that the rest of us can avoid it. Also, if you give us the owner's name we can avoid other apartments he / she owns.
Bob
I got screwed by Byt recently for the first time as well
Byt is not the greatest company but they do have a ton of places and they accept other methods of payment besides just cash so I have rented many places from them. I have only been burned once but I did refuse a place one time (because it was too cold during the winter and it was listed that they had an Internet connection and it turned out that the owner had disconnected it to avoid paying the bill.) I think that there are a couple of tricks to working with them which you might want to take note of. First of all, realize that all of the photos are real but they are taken in such a way as to make the apartment look bigger. What doesn't lie though is the amount of square footage that the place has. Find out what kind of space that you need and pay close attention to that number. Second, look at the amenities very, very closely and assume that anything not listed is non-existent. Also, if for example, you are interested in a particular feature (like a pool, fireplace, big balcony. Etc) send the agent that you have been dealing with an e-mail inquiring about that feature and explaining that this is really important to you. I had been working with a particular agent and they have always been good about straight shooting to me details about the place IF ASKED. If you don't ask they don't tell. Also, if you are interested in one of their properties and you have sent a detailed message to the agent telling them which features are important to you, when they get back to you with a list of alternate properties with the specs that you requested and don't mention the one that you asked about that usually means that the one you were interested in was screwed up or misrepresented in some kind of way. This is how I got burned. I insisted on going with a certain place after my agent was clearly trying to steer me away from it. I thought he was just trying to jack up my price but it turned out that the place next door was having a renovation. It was noisy all day long and a complete nightmare. I would recommend that someone new to the city and staying for a while come and get a hotel for a couple of days and rent a phone or by a chip for their existing phone because the agents will call you if you are in town. They still probably won't let you see the place before taking it but you can definately check out the neighorhood and the building before signing. Also, the one time that I refused to accept the apartment that they were offering I was staying in a hotel at the time and just refused to sign the contract. I didn't go to the place with all of my bags...etc. I wasn't worried about winding up out in the street and as a result I stood firm and they found another place for me THE SAME DAY which was the same price and 10 times better.
There are a lot of companies out there and when I first arrived in BA I had the impression that they all sucked and were trying to rip us off. I still have that impression but the combination of rising rents over all, the competition being forced to cut some of their ridiculous pricing, and Byt's prices increasing at a rate faster than the local inflation have influenced me to keep my eyes open for other opportunities. I think that the one feature that Byt has as a short-term rental agency that the others don't have is that they have SO MANY apartments that it is easy to pick your neighborhood. My experience with other companies is that they have one or two places in every area in your price range and if you don't like those places then you have to choose to live in a totally different neighborhood or change your price (usually go up in price of course). That's not acceptable to me because I already know BA and know where I want to be.
Greco - I totally agree with you about them not treating repeat customers with respect. You are absolutely right ..but we are in Argentina. What business do you know here that actually does respect repeat business. I don't know of any. It's cultural.
I rented through Byt once
I rented through Byt just because my first time in BsAs. I liked the place very much, and I met the flat owner. Since then whenever I need to come to BsAs, I called / email the owner. The owner gives me a lower rate than she advertises with Byt. I never ever need go through with ByT again.
If you like the place and would like to come back, hook up with the owner, screw the middle-man!
Strad