My conclusion is this house is ok. It might suite certain types of guests more than others, so I'll to provide some points below.
Let's start with what is really good there:
1) Location. The suburb is nice and feels safe. There is a huge shopping mall 10 minutes drive, and a great park for walks nearby.
2) Space. There are 5 bedrooms (2 of them are masters with their own bathrooms) + big enough living rooms and kitchen + a small deck if you fancy some sun. There is enough space to park 4 cars, which is good too.
3) Communication with the host. Angie was pretty responsive and happy to help with a few issues we had.
There are a couple of major things I'd suggest to improve:
1) Cleanliness and readiness. Firstly, we found a few quite unclean spots even after cleaning lady did her job, including dust, pieces of food, etc. Secondly, there were a few shards of glass on the floor, which is especially a huge problem when you have little crawlers. Angie called a cleaner again for us, which resolved these issues, however, there is another one. The house is a bit dirty in general, which creates a sense of untidiness everywhere, e.g. carpet has tons of stains, there are a lot of marks and so dirt on the walls, a strange plastic coverage on the table, the shower carpets are dirty, and the showers floors are dirty too, we found some hairs in the beds, fridge has some really dirty shelves, the lawn hasn't been mowed in a while, etc. It definitely looked different from what you see in the photos. I'd say it's more suited for the parties rather than family stay, though it says differently in the desciption.
There were a few basic things missing, like sponge for washing dishes, not enough paper towels (half of a roll I think), not enough dishes and cutlery as well.
2) Communication. We are a few family with the kids of different ages, and even though kids could be loud sometimes, we are very quiet in general. I understand hosts' concerns regarding the noise, and I'm totally fine with being asked to be reasonably quite, if it's done once. It's been done 3 times together with the directions to close the windows after 8 pm (good idea when it's +30C outside) and the threats of 1000$ fine in case of formal complaints from the neighbours.
A few things to say here:
- you can't expect everyone to be quiet, especially if it's an Airbnb (short-term stays)
- you can't legally fine anyone for anything - Airbnb doesn't support that, so unless the police is called it's just a threat, which creates a bad feeling and ruins the trust between the host and the guests
- the neighbours (from both sides) were actually a bit noisy, which makes it all even more ironic
My conclusion is that I won't stay there again, as the price is high enough to have a bit higher expectations.