I give them a star for the condition of the apartments, which are in a good stage. The apartments are only 3-4 years old. I like spacious rooms and bathrooms. Everything else is terrible here. I've been leaving here for the past 4 years and i can't wait to move out. --The location is extremely noisy ! The staff is not helpful and not telling the truth. Before moving to this apartment i specifically asked people at the office if that back side is quite or not and one of the ladies from their office (who also lived in the same building ) said yeah it's pretty quite in there. I was having a 5 mo baby and she literally would wake up every time because of the noise from outside. Specifically this was the noise from the garbage cans , they hit them pretty hard to the garbage car and this starts at 7:20 am in the morning ! - right in front of our windows. The other crazy noisy is from the leafs blowing machine which is terrible to hear right next to your windows as well starting at 7-8 am in the morning. So if you are planning to have babies or already have them think 10 times before moving to this apartment complex. We went and talked to staff numerous times, nothing has changed. Another thing is the staff is changing pretty often, so even if you talk to someone once and you think it will be taken care of in a month you come back and you have to start it all over again. even if they price dropped 50% i wouldn't stay here ! -People don't clean after their dogs, so the surrounded area smells pretty bad. - When exercising in the gym, the cleaning people would come with the cart full of chemicals and cleaning staff and would leave it there ... while i was exercising i was smelling those chemicals! -used the dry cleaning service two times. first time was not happy and decided to give them another chance. the second time i gave them my brand new skirt to dry clean and they ruined the skirt. Now i am trying ti get a refund for my skirt. This is just terrible! Don't move here if you have another choice! you will be running from here as soon as you experience all of this. oh and by the way the AT&T connection is saks here (we had to get a booster) as well as their internet connection is. The two floor apartment only has internet on the 1st floor, the second floor doesn't have internet at all. There is no Comcast in this area. Every year they would raise your rent by $300-$400. This year they proposed us new lease with almost $500 extra for new lease. When i checked the price on their website exact same apartment was renting for $550 less. We went to the office to check with them what's going on and so that they honor the same price for us.. Unfortunately, the staff couldn't explain the reason or help us with that. -oh and of course when you move out they will try to charge you as much as possible so they don't have to refund your deposit! read more

This review is for a few employees at Avalon Bay, San Bruno who show excellence in their jobs and with the residents. I am an appreciative fan of these few Maintenance employees at Avalon Bay Apartments in San Bruno. They work exceptionally hard for their employer and for quality living at the Avalon Bay Apartments. Ashwa is the Maintenance Tech for all three buildings. He works extremely hard, he is kind and is always a pleasant face to see ready to resolve resident maintenance issues. He gets the job assignments done correctly, diligently and leaves a clean workspace. Ashwa has been here for at least eight years and he is a great asset to Avalon Bay, San Bruno. I hope he is treated very well for all that he does to keep Avalon functioning for all of the tenants. Another employee of excellence is Novender. Everytime I see Novender, she is working so hard in the hot sun and bad weather sweating cleaning up after all the tenants in the buildings. Everything that tenants neglectfully discarded on premises plus dog poop and pigeon poop is picked up and cleaned up by Novender. She is a dedicated employee and she does her job in excellence. She is always a happy face to run into around the property. Her joy is contagious and appreciated by me. Together, Novender and Ashwa's demeanor is something that this world needs more of to function optimally. I also hope that she is being appreciated by Avalon Bay for her merit. Thank you both for all the years of virtue that you have brought to all of the tenants and Avalon Bay, San Bruno. Tenants at Building II read more

Although I like this apartment in general, office staff can be unhelpful at times. Whoever (woman) worked on April, 21 Tuesday 2015 closing time, only cares about her leaving at exact time, other than trying to help out the residents. Someone who is rude and would not spare 1 extra minute for an emergency of someone else. I hope one day you will have the same situation (or worse) and someone just like you can ruin your day. (Again, or worse) On the side note, they should work on their automatic phone answering system. Other than verbally call out the number and tell you to call that number to call the office, they should redirect your call straight to the office. Seriously, who remembers 10 digits while on the phone? Especially when they are in a hurry or not in a position to write the numbers down? read more

I wish I could give a 0. I had lived in many apartment buildings, including Avalon in Seattle. thats why I choose Avalon in San bruno after I moved down. and it turns out to be the worst housing decision i have made. The buildings are nice. In fact, I am pretty satisfied with the apartment condition. But nightmare occurs when your lease ends: 1. They increase the rent from $3100 to $3800. No negotiation. 2. They persuade you into taking a full clean package around $180, and they will have some one walk through with you. make sure everything is ok. That is ok too, although they charge an extra $100 for my cat. I rarely argue about moving cost, thinking that money can solve all the hassle. Then when I receive the final returned security deposit, they charge another $400 for carpet replacement and some $ for painting. Remember I only lived there for 11 month, and I had the confirmation letter from the walk through saying everything is ok. So I asked for proof. and they said they don't have it, and they can do nothing about it. Really? 3. That's not the worst. When I return the freight key to them, they told me that they lost my driver license....and yes they can reimburse the renew fee...WTF.. first time in life. So I have to spend another 3 hours waiting in DMV to get a new driver license. All these finally ignite my anger. (I was actually letting the driver license go until I see the extra $500 charge on the security deposit.) I then spent quite some time communicating with their customer service center on the phone, and they finally agreed to reimburse $250.(I actually offered $250 to the manager so that I could toss her driver license but was declined.:) Thats the story. I thought about going to small claim court just giving them some lesson. But I have much more things to do, so i guess thats it. stay away from it. or if you are really wealthy and have lots of time to renew your driver license.. read more

I have to say that I think the highly negative reviews of this place are pretty unrealistic and unfair. A lot of the complaints revolve around the noise and the recent rent increases. And while both of those things are true, I disagree that it warrants a crushing rating like many folks have given it. The noise - The apartment sits near the path where international flights depart from SFO. Approximately 18 hours a day, planes are flying pretty close overhead at an interval of one per 5-10 minutes. Some of the largest planes are loud and intense enough to set off the car alarms of cars parked in the Tanforan Mall across the street from us. Large planes make a lot of noise. This is a fact. It's also a fact that these planes were constantly flying overhead while every single person who lives in this apartment complex was touring the place before they moved in, giving them ample opportunity to experience it first hand before they agreed to move in here. I don't think it's reasonable to be surprised or indignant about plane noise. Plus the upside of this is that the rooms are insulated, both for sound and temperature, *way* better than the average living space in the Bay Area. I've lived in 5 Bay Area apartments in my 8 years in northern CA, and this place is hands down the best insulated. If you keep the windows closed, the plane noise is not that loud. If you leave your windows open, you have nobody to complain to but the person looking back at you in the mirror. Rent increases - I've lived here for about 18 months, and our rent was increased by around 20% when we renewed our lease. Not coincidentally, that's about the amount that housing costs increased Bay Area-wide from 2013-2014. As people have pointed out, San Bruno is not rent controlled. Avalon is not a charity, it's a business. Is it fair to be annoyed that rent increased? Yes. Is it reasonable to declare Avalon to be an evil company? No. People have also pointed out the pigeons. That is a fact as well. There have been issues with pigeons. The company installed netting in many parts of the building to try to keep them out. And where they haven't yet been able to install netting, they've cleaned people's balconies. I've asked them twice to clean up my balcony, and they've done it within 24 hours each time. This place has a bunch of other benefits as well. The Tanforan Mall is a 3 minute walk away. The San Bruno Bart is a 7 minute walk away. I commute to my office near Civic Center Bart station in less than 45 minutes. There's a really nice pool that I personally don't use but is very busy and popular. The apartment itself is 30% cheaper than the other places I've lived in the Bay Area (Mountain View, Downtown Palo Alto, Civic Center in SF, Polk St in SF) for comparable size, to say nothing of quality. The place is really nice, with washer/dryer, nice carpets, solid quality fixtures and appliances. Plus the maintenance and office staff are friendly and have been prompt whenever I've asked them for things. I've been very satisfied with my experience living at Avalon San Bruno and I would recommend it to my friends. read more

I lived here for one year. Things that went well: 1. Good neighbors, initially I could hear a couple having sex couple of nights a week, but later I guess they moved, no disturbances. You will not hear neighbors unless they scream on top of there noise nor will you hear there TV. I would say noise insulation is pretty good in that respect when compared to other places I have lived. 2. Walk-able to BART and Caltrain 3. Walk-able to Mall that has Target 4. Weather is not foggy nor too hot 5. Units have microwave, dishwasher and washer/dryer 6. Airplane noises generally doesnt bother me, its just filtered out of my brain. 7. Opted in for $254 clean up fees. I had maintained my apartment well. Was not charged anything more. I guessed its better to pay them than get someone from outside to save 50 bucks but not to there expectations resulting in extra charges. 8. One reserved car parking in basement. Covered and keeps the car pretty clean. Problems: 1. Rent increase, I know this is the bay area etc but my rent was increased by 20%. So, if you are moving in consider if you are ok with a +20% increase after an year or would you be ok to move out after an year. Personally, I dont like to move every year. Also, when I leased atleast verbally I was told rent would increase around 5-10% max, strongly suggest not to believe that. Market prices are high, agreed, but 20% increase for a current resident is definitely not what I was expecting. 2. Zero to 1 Bar cell network. You will need a landline to which you will have to forward cell calls. You can manage this, not a deal breaker. 3. Fire alarms, so many false alarms you will just stop getting out of your apartment. Yeah management will send an email with warnings to whoever pulled it, but it doesnt solve the problem. The only way it will be solved is if camera's are installed and hallways are monitored at these places. Not a deal breaker either. read more

Renting at the Avalon has been a positive experience so far! We had a maintenance emergency that happened at 10pm and within 30 minutes, Ashwa (one of the technicians) was at our door to the rescue! I was worried that our issue wouldn't be resolved since it was so late at night, but was pleasantly surprised to have things fixed and can now go to sleep without worries. Thank you Avalon! read more

I had a very bad and unpleasant experience and I would never recommend this apartment to anyone. The move out process and settlement was very frustrating. PROS: 1. Near Bart/Caltrain station. 2. Super close to 101/280. 3. Many convenience and grocery stores nearby. 4. Very close to airport Move in: 1. The move-in was smooth. 2. I was not picky in filling the move in checklist. But never do this mistake. Be very picky and note even the tiniest scratch or damage. Check if all the windows/doors open and close well. 3. Our apartment was in the 4th floor, facing the freeways. So dust always came in even if the windows were kept open for 1 few minutes. When we moved in there was a small layer of dust everywhere and they told this is normal. However when you move out, this condition will not apply. 4. Check with the person who is showing you around, about the Avalon cleanliness standard and what it means. (Explained later) If you do not pay enough attention to the checklist, then forget about the security deposit. Living: 1. The elevators will not work every now and then. The management might take from a day to 4 days to fix them. This wasn't easy for us since we were on the fourth floor. 2. The elevators will not be clean and there will be either water or dog poop and it will stink so badly. 3. The hallway/corridor carpets are very dirty and they stink. 4. The parking lot gates will not function sometimes and it opens access to anyone and the management takes a really long time to fix it. 5. The key fobs sometimes will not work and it is quite difficult to get in without this working. 6. The parcel/package delivery is still a problem and the management has taken 0 steps to fix it. Your packages which are delivered from Amazon or anywhere else have a good chance of getting stolen. You would never recieve them. There is a facebook group, but the apartment management do not reply to any of the complaints or address the grievances. All they do is post promotional events about free coffee. 10th month: 1. The 10th month after we moved in, the rent was increased from $4,365 to $4,833. And their only reason was market price. We felt that for the current state of the apartment, $4,365 was already costly and we asked if it can be reconsidered. The brought down the price to $4,435. (So always try to negotiate if the rent is increased.) 2. Given that experience of just bumping up the rent and then bringing it down, we decided to move out for sure. 3. Once we submitted out intent to vacate, the apartment was listed for rent on the website. Guess the rent - it was $4,365. I felt very annoyed and frustrated after this. Move out: 1. We were charged for carpet stains. Totally acceptable. 2. We were charged for leaving the apartment in a not move-in ready state. We asked for more proof and they sent us pictures of stains on the carpet and stovetop. There was a charge for carpet stains already and the stovetop was given in this same state with oil stains during move in. We did not make a big deal out of it during move in and that was the mistake. 3. So during move out, even though we left the apartment in a clean state, they told us it is not upto avalon cleanliness standards. 3. It is very difficult to dispute and talk with the customer service representatives regarding this, because their only motive is to make you pay and not help with anything. 4. When asked for more details, they mentioned, "We are not REQUIRED to give you any details or photos or explanations and this is just a COURTESY". 4. I tried to dispute this for 2 weeks and all I ended up being was frustrated, annoyed, losing my patience and I ended up paying the remaining balance. Before moving in, I read a few reviews online and one was from 2009. This is what they do. 1. Close to a year after you move in, they increase the rent by a lot, so that you move out. 2. During move out, they try to list all charges and rip you off the security deposit. 3. They gain a lot by just doing this. This is exactly what happened to me and it is 2018. read more

I came here for a tour of the place with an appointment. As soon as I entered the leasing office, I was rudely greeted by an East Indian woman with a thick Indian accent. She told me that there was a mix up with the appointment and to come back at another time. Totally rude and unprofessional considering we drove from San Jose. read more

I didn't pay 3500$ rent to have an apartment where I cannot receive packages. I lost 2 packages in the past month, and I actually just moved in not long ago. The value of packages summed up to 400$, not to mention the inconvenience it caused me. Security is a big issue as well, since the front door of the apartment is not always shut properly. My apartment had a leakage second day we moved in. I chose this apartment because it is Avalon, who claims to be safe and well maintained. Should've chose sth cheaper in the area instead. Probably will end up being the same read more

I have been living in Avalon for 2 years now, and it has been a very enjoyable experience. The office staff and service guys have been great anytime I've had any issues - big props to Jen, Elliot, and Ashwa!! If you have pets, this is definitely a great place to stay! read more

We've been living at Avalon since December and so far so good. Love the amenities - indoor pool/spa, 24hr gym, pet friendly complex, etc... Tanforan Mall right across the street and Jack's right next to the building. There is also dog park and playgrounds in walking distance. Jen was very helpful giving us the tour and showing different options. She was able to help us switch units after we change our mind. She made our move easy and smooth. The unit itself is decent. Nothing fancy but not crappy either. Stainless appliances in select top floor units only. The carpet in the hallway can be stinky sometimes but the cleaning crew takes care of it The only thing I want to call out is that there's barely any AT&T reception in the hallway and none in the garage. read more

Aside from moving to the west coast, living at Avalon San Bruno (ASB) was one of the best choices our family made! ASB is conveniently located near major freeways, walking distance to a mall & BART, & surrounded by a family friendly community. We're fortunate to have access to quality amenities & a safe well maintained property for our young family. ASB is also staffed with a great team that eased our transition. Quality service is essential & certain staff have proven to be assets to ASB in our opinions: Ashwa Mishra (Maintenance Staff) who has assisted us multiple times & has gone above & beyond to ensure the task was complete to his high standards each time & Jennifer Smith, who is the epitome of a Customer Service Manager. She's consistently been responsive, approachable, & takes the initiative to resolve any issues. Thank you ASB! read more

We scheduled and toured with Ian in the leasing office who was helpful, patient and prompt in assisting us in finding the best apartment for us. Great service. read more

I have to say, all the negative reviews of this place are quite unrealistic (in my opinion). My husband and I have been living in the Avalon San Bruno apartments almost 2.5 years. We started in a 1 bedroom apartment, and after two years decided to upgrade into a 2 x 2. The apartments are fine. We had zero problems in our one bedroom and some minor problems when we moved into our two bedroom. The maintenance and leasing office staff have been professional and prompt when helping us to resolve them (there were some minor issues with our appliances when we moved in. All is fixed now!) You really can't beat the location of this place. It's walking distance to pretty much everything you need. The mall is right across the street (Christmas shopping is a breeze!), Lucky's, Best Buy, etc is across the street from the mall, and about a half a mile behind the community is a CVS, Molli Stones, GNC, etc. The noise people are talking about? You're next to a major freeway interchange and can literally see the airport from the apartment complex. Of course there's going to be noise! The noise shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. If you don't like the planes, keeping your windows closed keeps it down. The proximity to the airport was one of the major upsides to this place, as we tend to travel fairly often. Rent increases? Welcome to the bay area. My husband and I have lived in 4 different apartment communities across the last 6(ish) years. Every single one has had sizable rent increases when it came time to renew our lease. Avalon's increases tend to follow market value. Is it pleasant? No, but that's the price you pay living in a large corporate apartment community. San Francisco has passed New York City as the most expensive place in the United States to live. Rent in the surrounding suburbs will reflect that as well. Overall, we love this place and are planning to renew our lease again when the option arises. read more

This review is specifically for Jen Smith, along with the complex as a whole. We transferred from Avalon Mission Bay to Avalon San Bruno just before the new year. Jen was wonderful - squeezed us in for a tour the same day, helped us sign a lease immediately and set up our transfer between complexes. Her support was much appreciated as we had a 3 week old baby and desperately needed the extra space offered at Avalon San Bruno. Jen has been extremely responsive to every request, comment and issue we have encountered - including adjusting our utility headcount accordingly and even routinely welcoming us throughout the community. She is friendly, professional and makes us feel at home here. 5-stars for Jen! With regards to the complex, we love it! For the slightly less than we paid at Avalon Mission Bay, we get a huge apartment in a great layout with all the amenities we need. Both my husband and I regularly swim in the indoor pool (and outdoor when weather allows), workout in the fitness center (which includes all the necessities), walk our dogs in the common area, BBQ in the courtyard and relax in the indoor and outdoor hot tubs. Our closets are enormous - big enough to be a small nursery for our child - and our bedroom is almost the size of our old apartment, let alone the gigantic bathroom! We grill on the patio and feel very safe in the building. For apartment living, we really can't complain. Free underground parking is convenient and safe, although the parking spots are a bit tight and the visitor parking is always full. Maintenance is also very friendly and the elevators always smell clean. No stinky corners like the city apartment we moved from. My husband takes Caltrain to work in the city, which is slightly less than a mile walk from the complex. I take tech buses from a satellite office within a 10-min walk from here or hop on BART which is a 10-min walk through the mall across the street. The shopping center has everything we need, including a grocery store, target and Starbucks. Easy highway access (both 101 and 280) and 5 mins to the airport make travel (for us and visitors) so easy. We regularly grab dinner from Jacks which is across from the complex, delicious and very reasonably priced. We are very happy with our home in San Bruno, and we definitely recommend Jen when you come to tour the complex! read more

Terrible service of the leasing office, especially Emily Fan. Don't expect any help from them, only ongoing issues. They gave us the parking spot which was occupied, we informed them about that right away. They confirmed it was OK to take the spot next to it and were supposed to assign it to us. They did nothing to the car that parked on the spot they initially gave us. Several days later our car is towed away... apparently they messed up and didn't assign the new spot to us. We're on the way to get the car and were told to park on that first spot again... it is still occupied with the same car... I hope this story ends one day. If not, I'll have a blog here.... Another issue- the first day we arrived we were looking for the keys for two hours and nobody from the leasing office helped us... it was on the door instead of being on the gate as instructed by our outside agent, the leasing office could at least try to help.... read more

Nice place, but be sure to get a land line if you plan on living here. Underground bomb shelters have better cell service than the apartments here. I don't take/make many voice calls on the cell, but having the entire interior of the building be a total dead zone is super annoying. read more

Do not rent here. The manager is rude. We saw a good looking 2b2b apartment which will be available next month. It perfectly matches my current apartment ends time. I called them before scheduling a tour. They said all good staff and we were happy to find a good apartment. However, at the end of the tour, the manager told me that the lease has to start one week after we send the application, which means we have to pay one month rent even though we have not moved to the place, even though the apartment I will rent is still occupied. We were shocked about this rule. She even told me all Avalon works this way. read more

My husband and I planned an afternoon to look at a number of apartments in San Bruno on Saturday, July 2. We came to Avalon San Bruno for our appointment, but a woman in the leasing office (20-30ish Indian-American woman) said we weren't on the calendar. I may have written down the appointment time wrong or there may have been a glitch with their online scheduling, but none of our other appointments were wrong that day. In any case, whether our mistake or theirs, she was shockingly rude about the mixup and didn't try to accommodate us although it was well before closing time and not busy. read more

Nice service. Anthony was helpful and made the renting process easy. Good amenities and nice crowd easy access to everything Bart, bus, cal train, mall, air port and highways. read more

This place is a dump. I was recently relocated to the Bay Area for a new job and my corporate housing group chose this property for me. The common area carpets in the hallways are covered in pet stains, the gym has old, non-functioning equipment, and the garage area reeks of rotten garbage. I had to stay there for 1.5 months and was depressed every day to come home to that disgusting place. The apartment itself was ok (definitely not luxury, though) but the common areas were hideous. I complained to my corporate housing group and they said they'd come to an inspection - but I never heard anything back. They dropped off a small gift basket with cookies and tea as an apology. Sigh. I feel like I need to decontaminate my belonging after living in that slum read more

We lived there for 5 years and the first 4 years it was great. Once the manager left & the head of maintenance left , everything changed. The feeling of a family community was gone. The whole complex turned into a place for singles to live. I'm assuming to work at YouTube, Walmart ect. When it was time to renew our lease we were shocked that the rent would increase roughly $800 per month. It wasn't that we couldn't afford it, but the place had gone to crap, so why pay? I guess getting more money for a unit is more important than someone who has been there 5 years with every month's rent paid on time. Go figure. Here's the kicker though. Did you know that there was an FBI raid at 1051 National for a tenant running a "brothel"? Or that many cars were broke into when parked in the secure garage? Many times the gates to the garage were broken and were left open for anyone to walk or drive to an elevator that would take them to the 1st floor. Just an easy walk up the stairs to reach the other floors. Management didn't care. From what I understand the newest way to use an apartment is to list it on CRASHPAD411.COM. I actually think this was going on before we even moved out. This is a website for those in the airline industry who may need a place to stay for a few hours or a few days. Currently there are 2 apartments from Avalon listed. Isn't it against the rules of the lease to SubLet and that all residences have to be on the lease? I actually don't care what people do in their apartments but when you have kids one doesn't feel safe with numerous people coming and going. It's pretty obvious as everyone that goes into these apartments are in airline uniforms. I have to imagine there also must be a fire safety issue when you have 10+ people in a unit. Just be warned, the management only wants money and doesn't really care too much about the tenants. Lousy wifi & cell signal, common areas not cleaned, trash rooms are disgusting & I had an $850 phone stolen by an office employee. That was resolved by crediting my rent the $850 but the employee stayed on for months, I'm sure helping himself to others packages. Jen was the only employee that seamed to care about the tenants. After we moved we were hit with a $1500 cleaning bill. They didn't take into consideration that we had lived there 5 years! Horrible place. read more

I just moved into Avalon San Bruno and it's been a great experience. Staff is great, very informative. I worked with Jen and she made moving in the easiest thing! They always let you know when things are closing/urgent matters come up. I had plumbing issues this year and they came within an hour to fix it for me, which was amazing. Thank you ASB! read more

This place is quite and homey! My special thanks goes to KEVIN, ELLIOT and ASHWA for making it a great experience! The staff are friendly and Maintenence dept addresses your concerns Asap. (Not like my previous place). We are glad to be apart of the Avalon family. The beauty of the place is seeing the aircraft taking off and passing by. Thank you Kevin, Elliot and Ashwa for making it a great experience! read more

I've been a tenant at two different Avalon properties over the last few years. The team here at Avalon San Bruno has been incredibly supportive. Their customer service has been great perk that we appreciate. They've been responsive to any maintenance or special needs. A big thanks to Jen Smith who helped us move from one unit into a larger space and we greatly appreciated all the support. We've greatly enjoyed our time here. It is a pet friendly complex. The location is geographically convenient as we're able to walk to either Bart or Caltrain. Easy freeway access to both 101 and 280 and SFO is right near by. The apartments have been large and comfortable. The amenities are another great perk, gym and pools. I would note that you are definitely in the SFO flight path, so you will hear planes regularly. But we've grown quite immune to them. read more

My wife and I have lived at Avalon San Bruno for one year now and we absolutely love everything about the property! It has very high quality finishes, well designed floor plans, desirable and convenient amenities, friendly and supportive office and maintenance staff, and a great location right across the street from Tanforan Mall/BART and a mile or so away from SFO! Also, it's very pet friendly, parking is easy and you can't hear your neighbors at all. It's a little expensive (show me a place that isn't in the bay area), but I think you get a lot in return! Hope to call this home for a while! read more

I recently had an extensive maintenance issue. Edy Andrade, Sr. Maintenance Supervisor, and his team did an excellent job of containing and correcting the issue in the most professional and courteous manner possible. P.D. read more

our kitchen sink clogged and ask for help at leasing office. Ashwa from Avalon came so quickly and found it was too hard to fix and call the agent immediately who fixed our kitchen sink in about 10 minutes! Fabulous service we have been received at Avalon. read more

This place is extremely hard to rent from. The leasing agents aren't helpful and when asked questions you are put on hold and then not answered. Such a shame as we wanted to rent here but will be going with another community. read more

We've lived in a few of these "high-end" apartment communities across the bay area. We were at Avalon for 1 year. Like all of them, Avalon in San Bruno offer a little convenience for $$. In this case, it's not worth it. The location may be close to the BART or a mall, but the entire community is right underneath all of the takeoff routes from SFO flights going to Asia. So once in a while you will need to pause all conversations as the building shakes for a little while. This happens more often in the evening and night, so you may not hear it on your visit, and none of the service agents will admit to how loud it is when asked. If you are not a heavy sleeper, you will wake up a couple times during the night. Then there are the prices. Avalon will absolutely increase your rent every time you renew your lease. This increase will be at least 10%, as they claim that it's adjusted to market rate. Even when the market goes down, the prices increase if you are still living there. In reality, you can find better apartments in better locations around Millbrae and San Bruno for cheaper. This place has an incredibly high turnover as the whole business relies on getting people to move in who are new to the area and need a place close to work. I would sincerely recommend spending more time looking at craigslist or other places to find a better place than Avalon. read more

Rachel Guion made moving in a seamless and easy experience. She is also very responsive and helpful when issues arise. Rachel is quite simply a kind person and makes every interaction pleasant. The rest of the staff has been great, as well. I've noticed steady improvements over the past few months. Management has really stepped it up. Common areas have been cleaned with more frequency, smoking / parking issues have been dealt with swiftly, more tenant events...keep it up! I'm looking forward to updating my four star rating to a five. I'll be sure to check back in. read more

I've been living here since August 15 and have nothing but great things to say. Aside from having a well maintained, modern and up to date facility, the service is what differentiates Avalon San Bruno from other facilities in the area. Rachel, Kevin, and Eliot are outstanding for whatever i may need. They are super responsive, always friendly and willing to go the extra mile to help with packages, a vandalism incident i had, taking care of a defective dryer, etc. Having a great facility is one thing, but having consistent and outstanding service is what differentiates the experience for me with individuals who are sincere in making things pleasant and no hassle. read more

The staff here are fantastic. Specifically Jen Smith, she is always friendly and willing to offer assistance in anyway that she can. Jen provided my brother and I with all of the information necessary to feel at home when we moved here from the east coast. read more

Great place, great location. The apartments are very nice and with good amenities. We have been living here for almost two years now and are very happy with Avalon Bay. The maintenance and customer support is 5-star. This review is specifically for Nikki Scythian, the new leasing personnel. She is very helpful and responsive to every request. She is friendly and professional, very prompt and hardworking. I would give her 5 stars for her customer service and problem solving skills. read more

This past Tuesday, the police came to break up a prostitution ring in multiple apartments at this complex. While we were at home, there was a John who tried to run away and had to be reprimanded in the hallway. We escalated this for 3 months and both the security that is supposed to be patrolling and answering calls (never answers even if you explicitly ask for them to follow up in person or by phone) never followed up, and the office (who also did not respond to voicemails or asks to knock on the door.) They instead left paper notes on the door but admitted they knew nefarious behavior was going on. The men who were soliciting illegal acts would be loitering in hallways day and night, following me and others to our doors, and even knocked on my door late at night (2 men) because they didn't know what apartment it was. There was one time there was a line of men because the woman apparently was running late. This is not the first time there has been a bust of this nature, and the office basically told me that nothing can be done after my rent was increased almost 500 dollars when I was forced to move because they were negligent after another tenant was smoking and hiding it (also illegal) and they did the same putting a paper on the door as a warning. We've also found homeless people doing heroin in our trash room (my husband had to call the police because yet again the security did not answer even though the guard was parked in plain sight) and another one with a target cart stealing packages inside. I'm sure someone will respond saying they are sorry for the experience and do absolutely nothing. For the prices of these apartments, they are unsafe and do less than the bare minimum to keep people safe. read more

I'm continuing to give Avalon a 4 star rating. It's been over a year since I last reviewed and some changes have happened. One of my complaints was the turn over of staff in the leasing office. Since then staffing has still been a problem, but it has been a bit more stable. I also found out that Avalon offers promotions to it's existing employees first and many of the people who've left have done so for promotions offered to them at different properties. While that's not so great for the tenants, I have to respect a company that helps each individual employee on their career path. One woman who was hired during the time of turnover is Jennifer Smith and she has turned out to be a great asset not only to the leasing office, but to me personally. She has gone out of her way to help me many times. In fact from now on when I have a problem, mainly due to a surgery or illness, she has asked me to e-mail her exclusively so she can make sure things get taken care of for me. She is calm under pressure which has made her a joy to work with even when things get hectic. I feel a level of comfort knowing that she is happy to take care of me, should I need special help. I only wish she could work 7 days a week. I'd also like to say that another great addition to the leasing office has been a gentleman named Elliot. He has been around for a while now and is also very helpful. He always has a smile on his face and greets everyone with an enthusiastic "Hello, how's it going". He had to take a short leave and I was so glad to see him when he returned. There are still problems with my own apartment which I feel should be taken care of, mainly the flooring. I can't imagine why new floors weren't put in before I moved in but now I'm stuck with a nasty kitchen floor that has tens of gouges in it. They did finally replace my bathroom floor, but they used super cheap materials which were installed incorrectly. They used vinyl tiles and they are separating in several places. The bathroom is really nice and I wish I had nice floors to finish off the look. There is a new operations manager so perhaps I can see if he would take a look and try to fix them. Operations/Maintenance is always very responsive and they've helped me with things that are not necessarily their responsibility, like hanging my chandelier for me. That doesn't mean you always get what you want, but they do respond. Other than that I feel that Avalon San Bruno the best place I've ever rented. They work at planning activities, the grounds are really nice and if you like dogs, this is the place for you. I don't have one, but I'm thinking of changing that. read more

Since they brought in the new property manager, I do feel things have gotten better than before. The service team is more responsive to requests and the overall customer service has improved. In regards to airplane noise people complained below, I personally think once you get use to it, you don't evens notice it's there. Especially for building 3 we live in, I guess the windows are thicker so I don't find it to be an issue. We always keep our window open, even at night, and I almost forgot the noise unless I pay attention to it. Living next to SFO makes travelling much easier and I could catch early morning flights without worrying to get up three hours ahead. In terms of rent, I think it's a fair price. I believe you would pay the same price for an apartments in the same conditions everywhere in the bay area, so this is nothing ridiculously unacceptable, unless you want to live far away from public transport and don't mind driving to the train stations and pay parking everyday. Overall, I think it's a good place to live. It's a very large apartment complex and you can't expect everybody to love this place. In my opinion, their services improved so I think I want to give the management a credit for it. read more

Being a travel nurse I look for a home away from home. Avalon apts has given that to me! The customer service is excellent. This awesome experience started when I first visited and met Jen. She was warming and extremely informative! Having her start my process was a blessing. She also sensed that my dog is my family, and made sure to express the dog friendly environment. Great to have a dog park next door. And on move in day I was welcomed and given a tour by Elliott. He is just as awesome! They were two lasting first impressions that represent the company very well. I have been raving about my new place and plan on staying longer than initially expected. read more

My husband and I have lived in 8 apartment complexes between the two of us. Our experience at Avalon has been the best, by far. We just renewed our lease and are looking forward to another year here. I think most of apartment hunting is finding amenities to match your lifestyle. There will never be a "perfect" apartment but the Avalon is as close as it gets for my husband and me. We commute via BART/Caltrain, we cook, we exercise but don't want to pay for expensive gym memberships, we like to travel, and we have two dogs. Things we love about the Avalon: stainless steel appliances with gas stoves and a HUGE kitchen sink, open floor plans, the gym and pool and barbecue, in-unit washer/dryer, and the great location. We're around the corner from BART, a grocery store with a great meat & fish counter, several restaurants, a Target, and a dog park. I can get to the city in 20 minutes (or take uber home after a night out, for $25). I love the convenience of being close to the airport. We only hear planes overhead when our patio door is open. We also got a unit with an exterior patio entrance, very useful for walking the dogs. Things we don't like: poor cell reception (for what it's worth, we've found Verizon works better than AT&T in the building) and internet hiccups about once a month. The internet thing is the city of San Bruno's fault - they only offer 1 internet provider. Cell reception issues seems to be the norm in new apartments with thicker walls. The silver lining: thick walls means we never hear our neighbors! The best thing about the Avalon is the amazing team - Ashley, Kevin, Rachel, Jerrika, Jen, and Elliot. They put up with my (multiple) bulk Amazon packages, along with all the crap that goes with managing 3 buildings. This is the first time an entire leasing office knows and greets my husband and me by name, always with a smile. Even our dogs love visiting the office. I don't know how they do it, but they're awesome. read more