I bought this for my hallway. Yes, it had an order of new carpet when I got it be no different than any new carpet.  I read that using a vaccum on the rug is a problem....we'll see. It's exactly what I expected...although the tight knotting is a bit hard on the barefoot so you might want to consider that depending on where you are using the rug.  It was slippery on my floor so a rug pad is an absolute must.  I can't really find any reason to give this less than 5 stars.