Given all of the past glowing reviews of Kathleen & her place, I've struggled with what to write. As a superhost I think she'll be disappointed but I can only report what I experienced.
To start, I believe that a lot of what was disappointing about my stay came down to two things:
1. Kathleen herself was not present and in retrospect, I should have taken into account that my expectations had been heightened based at least partially on reviews from her previous guests who had visited when she was there. She did notify me well in advance that she would not be there, but I guess I assumed that the alternative person she had arranged to meet me would be as welcoming & faciliting as Kathleen.
2. I have limited experience of staying in shared space accommodation AirBnBs and did not expect the host & I would be so on top of each other in the open plan living-dining-kitchen area which was quite small.
My experience:
I booked my planned stay well in advance & in her messages Kathleen was very responsive & welcoming to me & my dog who I was bringing with me. A full 3 weeks before my trip Kathleen messaged me to say that she would not be present for my arrival or for the first day as she had been called away for family emergency. She indicated that there.would be someone else there to greet me & that she would be returning on 5th Sept, the day after I arrived. The day before I travelled I messaged her to ask I I could push back my check-in to the evening rather than afternoon & Kathleen helpfully said that my host would be there.
When I arrived, I was met by Jake who guided me upstairs to the room, asked if everything.was OK, & with no further conversation, immediately turned to go back downstairs. I asked him where I could get a meal in the area. He misunderstood & said something about milk & cereal for breakfast & that Kathleen would be back two days later, not the following day. When I clarified the question, he said he had very little English, & mentioned a pub around the corner. He the went back downstairs without any further introduction to the house, the shared area, whether I needed a key, where my dog could access, etc. When I went downstairs a few minutes later to get my bag from the car, everywhere was in darkness, all doors to other rooms in the house were closed & I wasn't even sure if Jake was still there. All of this left me feeling quite unsettled & unsure.
After about 30 minutes of checking places to eat online, I decided to go to the pub & went downstairs to see if there was a key to the house. I knocked on the living room door. Jake was lying on the the sofa watching TV & looked alarmed / put out / unhappy that I had come into the room. I asked about a key, was told it was is in the door & then he looked back at the TV. My impression was of someone who was house-sitting for the weekend & did not expect or want to be interrupted or asked questions by whoever happened to be staying in the house.
I ate in the pub. The staff were lovely & welcomed me & my dog. The food was OK. It was the only place to eat within walking distance of Kathleen's at 8:30pm on a Saturday night & based on online searches there were no shops within a 5 min drive which were open had I wanted to buy something to take back to the house to eat.
After dinner, I went back to the house. Unsure of whether Jake was staying the night, was still there, was gone out etc, I went back to the bedroom. Before arriving for my holiday I had envisaged pleasant evenings reading my book or maybe chatting to my host with a glass of wine (which I had brought with me), but not wanting to creep around a house I didn't know at night, I decided instead to go to bed early.
The next morning I heard noises around the house which implied that Jake was there. I didn't feel happy with the arrangements though & having decided that the house was too small & that Arthurstown itself didn't have very much to offer, I messaged Kathleen to give her 24 hours notice of cancelling with the intention of leaving the following day. She replied very quickly, asking if everything with the accommodation was OK I explained about the house being smaller than I expected, my discomfort with the size of the shared living area & my sense of intruding on Jake. She was disappointed but agreed to the cancellation.
I went out for breakfast to a place I found online & while there came across an alternative location which I felt would be more suitable for me. Because it was available that day, I decided to take the financial hit of leaving Kathleen's early so that I could get to my new accommodation & get on with my holiday. I messaged this information to Kathleen, returned to the house, packed & left. I did not see or hear from Jake again.
I've gone to great detail above in the hope of explaining the situation as clearly & as fairly as possible. While I have not given Kathleen superhost scores, I feel that I have been fair. The bedroom was as shown by the photos...enough room for me & my dog. The bed was very comfortable, the bathroom was clean & had everything a guest would need. The shower had good water flow. Kathleen was very responsive at all times.
The primary downside was that the house is quite small, so from what I could see there is little space other than