Joslene was excellent to communicate with. The house looked charming to me internally and externally and the living area was a good size for my husband, son and me. However the hosts need to ensure cleanliness. We were disappointed it hadn't been properly cleaned prior to our arrival, even though we booked months in advance for a long stay and paid around A$6,000. My husband and I have stayed in approximately 25 Airbnbs and others were of acceptable cleanliness except Queen Bea wasn't. There were plenty of spider webs, the floors were dirty and either hadn't been vacuumed and mopped prior to our arrival or done in a very brief way. There were leaves on the floorboards inside, chunks of soot had fallen from a chimney, long dark hair was everywhere and even cloves of mouldy garlic and dusty kids toys were under the sofa. The kitchen and bedroom cupboards and drawers were so dirty I had to wipe them out before use, even though I should have been spending time on other things.
The worst part for us was that after a week our 4-year old son developed severe asthma (he never had symptoms previously) and required emergency treatment at the Children's Hospital. The sofas at Queen Bea were stuffed with feathers and dust and I believe the woollen bed quilts were full of dust mites, which are a known trigger for asthma. When I changed the sheets and quilt covers, I found the woollen quilts were covered in stains from previous people and appeared never washed. Beneath the fitted sheet on the queen bed I found many food crumbs from a previous occupant.
The house was cold with windows that rattled in the wind and required a lot of heating for any reasonable degree of comfort. Many days when we went for a walk to enjoy the sunshine, it was noticeably warmer outside. The bedrooms were also noisy. From the front room we could hear the trains tooting at the crossing up the road, frequently in the early hours of the morning. The other room was next to the hot water service that was noisy with water thundering through the pipes whenever anyone in the house used warm water.
Unfortunately we stayed during the Stage 4, heavily restricted lockdown in Melbourne due to the coronavirus pandemic and were unable to leave Queen Bea as soon as we would have liked.
I can’t recommend this place for a long stay unless the hosts significantly improve its standard.