Airbnb review
My wife and I stayed here for about three weeks. Check-in was painless enough, and while the wifi didn't work when we first arrived, it was solved soon enough.
Let's start with the pros:
* It's in a quiet, residential neighborhood.
* It is indeed spacious — it's literally an entire basement
* There's a small, separate room with an ironing board and iron (if you're doing any sort of recording it's surprisingly good, if a little echo-y).
* A good supermarket is about a 400 meter walk, and bus 16 stops about 200 meters away.
* All the appliances you'd expect in a modern, Western, first-world place are present: fridge, coffeemaker, microwave, oven/stovetop.
Now, the cons.
* In 20+ countries and dozens of Airbnb's, this has got to be the loudest bed we have ever heard. It was not possible to get into or out of the bed without waking my wife. Even shifting from one side to the other was noisy. If you're by yourself, this probably won't matter all that much.
* The kitchen is minimally equipped — three plates. Two bowls. A handful of cups. A few pots and pans. No small plates. No baking pans. Nothing that a small investment of the host's wouldn't fix, so this may not be relevant to you now, future reader...
* Heating and/or air-con are not directly under your control. It's a central system that's controlled from upstairs. The host is quick enough to change it per your request, of course.
* 'Quiet' refers to the neighborhood — but when the four-year-old above your head decides to cry, drop a ball, or run around the house, you'll know it. If they're blending, vacuuming, or coughing, you'll hear it... and I have to believe it goes the other way around.
* Because the house is shared with other people, the washer and dryer is apparently only available on the weekends. This is disclosed in the booking notes, but is easy to overlook and just a bit annoying.
* There's very little else to see within a kilometer's walking distance, and it's a fairly long subway ride on line 2 to get into Toronto proper. The Scarborough GO station is about 850 meters away and connects to Union Station, so you're good if you're going downtown.
Overall, reasonably priced and relatively easy to access if wanting to live like a local.