The good:
- Perfect location, close to literally everything (beach, restaurants, creeks, playgrounds, you name it). There is a beautiful creek nearby, highly recommend taking a swim in the morning. It's wonderful.
- Great places to eat literally within 5 minutes walk.
- The owner (Sandra) was accommodating, she upgraded the internet plan after I specified the importance of having good internet. We were charged for the difference but not for her troubles - appreciate it Sandra!
- Late checkout (12pm) was allowed - appreciated.
- The studio is very well equipped, had everything except a dishwashing sponge funnily enough, which we got at our own cost.
- Late check-in was allowed and relatively hassle-free as the instructions were clear - and the PIN worked.
The not so good:
- While the host was gracious to call their ISP to upgrade to the higher plan (the cost of which was passed to us, as agreed), the coverage could be better. I was working full-time during my stay and had some internet issues. Fortunately, except for one major outage lasting 30 minutes or so the rest of the time is was ok, intermittent dropouts here and there. I think having a WiFI extender will make this problem go away.
- Lack of privacy. Having such great location comes at its price - the footpath is right outside the room and people can see inside unless you have your blinds down, which makes the place even more dark than what it already is.
- Noise. Not so great if you're intending to sleep in as it's right next to the street and there's a cafe nearby. However if you go intend to go to bed after 10 and wake up before 7, it's perfectly fine. This is what we ended up doing.
- As the place is a bit dark (the studio is on the first floor of a multi-storey facing east), it's hard to dry clothes etc. Not an issue if you're staying there for a weekend, but bit annoying if you're staying there for 2 weeks like we did.
- Checkout procedure - it's a bit unclear and couldn't leave the key in the box since the pin number wasn't working.
The bad:
- Got charged $35 extra for putting an esky in the recycle bin. There was miscommunication between myself and Jaina, as I mentioned the esky as I was checking out. She said I couldn't leave it in the apartment (fair enough), so I put it in the recycle bin. Had I known that I was going to get charged extra for putting it in the recycle bin, I would've done something different. Slightly disappointing end to the stay.