Bonaventure of Albany

Steve R

I posted this review on Yelp. I think it's applicable here and I truly believe what I wrote. "You get out of it what you put into it. The facility is modern and nice. But... if you're not there all the time helping your family member or being an advocate, that resident is not going to do all that well. There's only a few caregivers and one maintenance person for a facility of over 200 residents. The food situation is mediocre at best, no menus, only a couple options. You can tell they buy low end ingredients and prepackaged (which saves FTE prep hours but is expensive, it's a trade off), plus are out of many items much of the time like ice cream, cookies, things residents really look forward to. They take the financial position of running out is preferable to having any waste. Right now the ice machine is broken and they don't have a back up, certain items need to have back up systems. Their server situation is abysmal, they had one server for 37 people the other night, waits can be up to an hour and half for food. You also have to face reality, corporate management knows they have families over a barrel, a lot of what goes on is family behavior, out of sight out of mind, many residents don't have visitors for months and years at a time. In actuality these residents are the lucky ones, I can't imagine what a person goes through without any resources to fall back on, financial or otherwise. You can expect to pay in the $10k a month range for assisted living about 40/50% of that that for independent living." (Google review) I cringe when I read some these Google reviews, some are far too harsh, but others are legitimate, there's many positives at the facility. You're paying a lot of money for a modern top of the line building, plus Bonaventure like all of us are dealing with significant increases in expenses caused by all the all the issues that are out of our control I.E. employee turnover, inflation, increases in property taxes, city services. However there are some things that are self inflicted like substandard food quality/service which they could address, that's something that the residents really look forward to and is complained about the most. If they just fixed that one issue, I could see a resident complain about certain challenges but they will always remember they have great food, It's the worst area to try and cut costs. It's what kills most restaurants, they'll have a beautiful wonderful modern building and all these fancy marketing campaigns, but they cut the quality of the food, it kills that business model every time.

A VD

The experience I had with staff at Bonaventure while searching for a place for my mother was outstanding. I can't say enough about the efficiency, cleanliness, peaceful location and genuine staff. The care team and management were some of the best I've had contact with. The residents were laughing and seemed happy and content. Albany is lucky to have this facility!

Megan M

If I could give zero stars I would. I worked here for a few weeks and the management is pathetically bad at their jobs. Everyday there was a new crisis that could have been avoided had management done their jobs. Now I’m having issues getting my final check from them and have received the run around from the front office on where my money from the missing 50 hours I worked is. Not to mention how terrible the residents are treated and ignored by management. Whether you’re considering working here or putting a family member here I would advise to go somewhere else because this place is a mess.

Kelle Judah

I am compelled to leave this review as I recently came in to this location after having many nice and direct conversations with management not to mention a lovely tour of the rooms ( pre Covid19 ) to consider this facility for my mom. But my eyes were opened a bit more as I came in to drop something off and apparently I was not remembered as a potential new customer. So my experience at the front desk and then with that same person in management who had been so kind was quite the opposite when they didn’t know who I was. I felt shocked and disappointed at the way I was treated and that possibly I was really seeing a more realistic viewpoint of how things may go there in real time sadly. Maybe it was just a bad day and obviously things have been stressful but as I observed and listened and spent time to think about it after, I thought no, it was probably a blessing in disguise that I was there by chance as a regular person. It’s a difficult thing to trust someone with a loved one and I wanted so badly to believe I had come across a perfect place for my mom (who fortunately I am in no rush to relocate) but, I don’t feel that good feeling of trust now with the staff. Maybe we will have to stop in again and have lunch, maybe it was just the day? I don’t know. The facility is beautiful and perfectly located for visits from friends and family, it seems so much better for so many reasons than other locations but as I sit with my recent visit/experience my gut feeling is that I would be making a terrible mistake which makes me sad as I felt so completely sure they were going to be the right fit. Take time to investigate and observe any of these kinds of facilities, don’t rush. I have to remind myself that they are a “business”, not home. It will take a lot to change my perspective at this point. Maybe when my mom visits it, she will love it, but I will be on my guard.