It's a super soft rug, no weird smells and it looks great. The backing is very thick. I personally didn't use a rug pad because I'm layering this on top of another rug. I've noticed a lot of people complaining that the rug can't be vacuumed so I clean it with a lint roller. It works really well albeit a tad time consuming. That being said, the only reason I gave this 4 stars and not 5 is because I've really not had this rug that long at all, only 2-3 weeks now. It's sitting underneath my baby's swing so it's not the most high traffic area but it does see some action. It's held up so far but due to some previous reviews I'm anticipating some durability issues