It should be noted that despite advertised as such, this is not an individually hosted home. The apartment is owned by Sure Home Stays, a large Canadian property management company based in BC. Airbnb is their marketing partner. Alex is their employee. He is not on site in SJ and only available online. The operative care of the unit as well as the handling of all on site issues with renters are subcontracted to Canada Homes for Rent, also a property management company which has local personnel in the SJ area and provides the actual services.
This is relevant because when questions or problems arise, it leads to formalistic communication with the host, and bureaucratic reporting and decision making between several parties in the background, thus creating inconveniences for the renter. Moreover, upon booking the apartment individual lease contracts and additional personal identification procedures are requested that are quite beyond the standard Airbnb process. Check in/out is very rigid. 4pm (in) and 10am (out) is non-negotiable even to drop off bags.
A hair dryer and an iron was missing and the keys did not work reliably. It took more than one day to resolve the first and two to solve the second. Our stay was affected by the uncertainty of being able to access our unit. (Our concern was initially met with the supposition that we could not operate keys. The lock was, in fact, defective).
Apart from the above, the unit itself is large, clean, functional, well equipped, conveniently located and it includes parking.