this place has curb appeal. it photographs beautifully. but the curb is as close as you should get…the problems are too numerous to list. so i will only mention the worst offenses:
1 the internet speed was less than 2MB/per second. email lags. you see circles spinning on every screen you have: tablet, laptop and phone. a web page takes several seconds to load. a video will stream in low resolution and freeze or drop entirely. i wrote to the host, jolene, about this the day after moving in. she never responded. by the end of the week..a week of zero productivity…i was told by jolene's concierge to contact the owner of the home. this is ridiculous in and of itself. but the owner did little more than apologize.
2. there is one entrance at the front of this home: an electric gate. the electric gate worked for a total of 2 days. i stayed here for 25. what happens when the electric gate doesn’t work? you have to find the key to unlock the controller, manually disconnect the mechanism, and push the heavy gate open and closed every time you enter and exit. if you want security, you have to re-open the controller and manually reconnect the motor so that others can not simply push open the gate. if the gate stops working while you are outside the property i hope you are healthy or agile enough to climb over the gate. there is no other door next to the gate.
3 the kitchen is mostly stocked with empty cabinets. i am a bachelor. i stayed here alone. there was one cheap pan and two pots along with flatware so cheap the fork bent eating salad. the kitchen was so poorly stocked i had to buy a can opener, colander and other basics that weren’t provided.
add to this a complete lack of communication. host jolene did not respond to any messages after booking. not one. you can reach her concierge outside of airbnb on whatsapp. he tried to help, but seemed mostly overwhelmed or incapable.
two more things…
on the day i arrived, the concierge showed me around. housekeeping had spent the day preparing the home. after he left, i discovered there was no toilet paper...five bathrooms in this house and not one single roll of toilet paper.
and this: when i first entered the master bedroom i saw a large wooden baby crib next to the bed. i asked the concierge why there was a large crib in the only room with an adult sized bed? he had no idea. the crib, by the way, could not be removed. it is too wide to fit through the metal security gate (?!?) installed on the master bedroom door.
i got this house for nearly half off considering it was winter in SA and a global pandemic. it wasn't worth it.