Rio West

I love the location and how small the complex is. However, something needs to be done about people running through hallways SCREAMING at 3 in the morning every night of the week. The walls are so thin I can hear people talking the hallways from my room.

You are pretty good. I wish the walls were thicker and mateince would come faster and water pressure wouldn’t fluctuate as much. The elevators are a little sketchy and the left one needs to be fixed.
Honestly, I would live here again. I have no real issues minus the leak I had from the storms. I like that I have a gated garage and that it is only available to residents.
I would say this isn’t a good place for pets. It’s really hard. No grass nearby and that’s not good if you have a puppy.

I don’t move-​in until August 15^th, but so far my experience with Rio West has been really great! The leasing office was really helpful when I went in to finish signing my lease even though I got there 20 minutes before closing. They helped me finish my paperwork and showed me around the model apartment so I could see what my spaces would look like.

NOTE — If you’re wondering why there’s so few reviews here, it’s because management keeps flagging /​deleting the unfavorable ones (like this one, which had gotten deleted).
I lived at Rio West from August 2013 til May 2015, and I’ve experienced several inconveniences along the way.
On first visit, my roommates and I were extremely pleased with the property, as it filled almost all of our needs (4 bedrooms including 2 ‘double’ bedrooms which could house 6 people, large living area, close to UT campus). On top of that, the model apartment they show is gorgeous.
However, it only took waking into the management assigned apartment on my move-​in day to feel ripped off. The biggest problem I had right away was the north wall of Rio West is located about 6 feet from the south wall of The Block next door. Stupid of me to not think this would be a problem, but looking out our window gave a beautiful view of the gray, lifeless wall of The Block. If you are unlucky enough to get stuck on the north facing side of Rio West, believe me — you need to buy extra lighting, as absolutely no sunlight will ever enter your apartment. Extremely dreary.
Fast forward a few months. In late 2013, some idiots broke the elevator call button on the 6^th floor. Instead of fixing it, management decided to leave it so that you could not call the elevator up to the 6^th floor, in punishment of the residents (this was clearly stated as their position in a letter they posted on everyone’s doors). It was at least 4 or 5 months before management fixed the issue.
On the note of security, Rio West has none. Up until summer 2015, there was no card or code required to get into the building (note I believe this has changed). This rendered the public areas in the building extremely subject to idiocy and drunkenness. I can remember at least 10 occasions when there was piss (or worse things) in the elevators, up until one of the elevators effectively destroyed in (I believe) March 2015 (it appeared as if someone tried to hang from the ceiling, as the tiles had caved in and the metal of the ceiling was bent).
Right outside Rio West are bike racks fit for about 20 – 30 bicycles. Trust me when I say they are NOT SAFE — I know of at least 3 – 4 bikes being stolen from there (as you can probably guess, there’s no camera).
The staff is actually not too bad, as maintenance issues are handled within a week and otherwise they are relatively hands off. One inconvenience is that they do not notify you of packages, which go sit in the leasing office and aren’t available for pick up except in normal business hours.
In the end, I would definitely not live here again. The only reason I re-​signed my lease for a 2^nd year was because I and my other roommates were spread in various corners of the US for internships in the summer between the 1^st and 2^nd year, and had no realistic ways of coordinating a move (especially as all west campus leases end July 31^st and begin ~August 15, creating quite an awkward transition period).

Rio West is awesome! All you have to know is they’ll take care of any issues you have in a timely manner, the front office is great and very helpful, and they have really cool rewards like gift cards just for renewing! I would definitely recommend living here.

The 5 star reviewer is either completely delusional, or currently works for Rio West. Worst living experience imaginable. On move-​in day we walked in the door only to find a disgustingly dirty apartment. What’s more, we found old towels and items from the previous residents, meaning that the complex probably didn’t even enter the room from the time that the old residents moved out. They do NOT follow through with maintenance requests. WIFI was useless. Never have any cellular service. Over-​priced. Terribly thin walls (you can hear all the sororities and neighbors outside). I’ve been to many places in West Campus, but this apartment complex is literally the worst. Do not buy into their cool advertising or how nice the model room is (our room looked absolutely nothing like it). Moving out early. NEVER live here. EVER.

Rio West was a great place to live as a sophomore. I shared a room with 5 others and it did not seem too crowded. The management is great. They consistently fix any problems that come up with the apartment the day you call it in; whether it be a light that burnt out, or a clogged drain etc. They consistently plan activities and have special events throughout the year and memorably they had snacks and coffee during finals week. The computers and printer in the lounge were always functional and fast. The internet was great. The pool and weight room were consistently clean. I had no complaints with the complex.

No. Just no. Don’t live here. Main problem — every single appliance they use is probably the cheapest one ever made. Washing machine has broken a few times since I moved in and leaked water all over the floor. Dryer takes 2 90 minutes cycles to actually dry a medium load of clothes. Dish washer leaves nasty sand-​like residue on all your dishes (literally they go in cleaner than they come out) no matter what detergent you use. For the first HALF of our lease term, our water heater hardly worked. It took 4 maintenance requests and a hand delivered letter from Austin tenants council for them to actually fix it. Water bill will be about $ 100/​month electricity about $ 300. Wifi doesn’t work and you will need to use an ethernet cable (even though they advertise free wifi). There will be puke in the hallways at all time. It will always smell. The printer in the study room will be out of ink/​toner for weeks at a time. The pool and gym are a joke, that’s why no one ever uses them. Oh yeah and can’t forget about the elevators of death. They make the scariest noises and many times the lights are completely busted so you have the option of lugging your groceries up 6 flights of stairs or getting into a pitch black elevator that is CLEARLY not in proper working condition. They went about 4 months with an overdue elevator inspection. They only RANDOMLY lock the lobby doors (they’ll have them locked for about a week and then two months unlocked, 1 week locked, etc etc) which makes it completely pointless to lock them in the first place, so you never know if you’re going to need your key card or not. Oh yeah and even though you pay as much as everyone else, you might just get stuck with a crappy 2001 haire? TV. Everyone will come into your apartment and be like «damn, why is yall’s TV so ghetto compared to everyone else’s» «BEATS ME!» Unless you live on the 6^th floor, you will have to deal with constant booooooomboomboom from your upstairs neighbors bowling or wrestling — that’s what it sounds like they’re doing since the floors and walls are paper thin. But even though every single resident has to deal with this, don’t be surprised if they issue you a lease violation because your downstairs neighbors complained.
Don’t ever use their online system to pay rent. Not only is there a $ 15 «convenience» fee to use it, The ONE time I ended up using it, there was an error in their site and the payment never went through (words straight from my bank). I was never informed this happened and only knew after checking on it when noticing my rent was never withdrawn from my account many days after it was due. Got stuck with $ 65 in late fees. BUT WAIT. THERES MORE! They charged me another $ 10 late fee… the day after I paid it… in what world does that makes sense? Anywhooooo, the lady from the office told me that I was stuck with all the late fees because it «worked for other residents» and «it’s policy».
The girls who work in the office are EXTREMELY immature. If you complain about anything, they will find reasons to issue lease violations, and give you the crappiest customer service possible. Once they’ve got you by the balls with your lease, that’s when every single ounce of their accommodating attitudes go out the window. Please do yourself a favor and live elsewhere.