It could just be that Murphy’s Law struck during our three night stay here. There are plenty of good things about the space. Easy/secure check in with great instructions that leave no doubt about how to get in. Full kitchen available for use. Centrally located for downtown Victoria - great launch point for walking the city.
But our stay was, unfortunately, marred by some negatives.
The couch (a pull out) fell apart several times. The first time, the arm literally fell right off and thumped flat onto the floor. In trying to put it back together, it was clear some parts were broken or missing, so it wouldn’t properly re-attach. We had to be careful about it our whole stay, which was challenging because it’s the primary place to sit aside from some high barstools and chairs at the kitchen table. (I brought this to their attention, and they assured they will get it fixed, so hopefully this problem is resolved for future guests).
They told us the door to the balcony was “tricky.” I stopped trying to open it out of fear of breaking the door handle. So we never got to use the balcony. There was a thick layer of dirt built up on the balcony as well. If we had made it out, I’m certain our feet would have ended up black from it.
The bedroom has no ventilation, so became quite warm and stuffy at night. There was one tower fan, and by the second night we had the fan set up in the open doorway to the rest of the apartment and the windows in the living room open to draw in the cool night air, which did help cool it off a little. Still a little too stuffy for our liking, which made sleep elusive.
Lastly, the bathroom door has a lock on it, which our precocious toddler dutifully locked and shut with all of us outside. We looked but couldn’t find a key or other tool for unlocking the door, so contacted our hosts. While they were responsive (within minutes), it was ultimately up to us to go out and find a tool to open the door ourselves. Fortunately, it was early enough and the folks at the MEC down Government St. were super helpful, so we did get a tool to unlock it (needed a small flathead). But I feel like this is something a host should have anticipated as a possibility, and had a key/tool available in the unit. (I also recommended this to the hosts, who said they will ensure there is a tool/key in the unit in the future).
Again, maybe we just were unfortunate and stayed here when several things went wrong - it happens. But nonetheless, it meant we didn’t enjoy our stay as well as we should have, and thus would not stay here again.