My husband, 7 year-old son and I spent a week in one of the Venice Beach Suite apartments. It is a four-unit residential building, each with direct access to the outside ("four-plex" with 2 units upstairs and 2 downstairs), and a small shared garden with an outdoor dining table w/ seating and a barbecue available for guest use. The apartment was mostly as pictured with modern-style furnishing, comfortable beds and nice-quality towels and bedding. It was also well-stocked with the items one would generally need/want and there is a guest manual/handbook with lots of great information and local recommendations. The location is very convenient -- just a couple blocks from the beach, an easy walk to the wonderful Abbot Kinney area and the major local freeways are close-by. Also not far from Santa Monica and Marina Del Rey, both of which have generally nicer/cleaner beach areas than Venice (the beach area in Venice can be gritty). There is a lot to like about Venice and its well-known eclectic & laid-back vibe, though it can also be rather jarring to see multi-million $$ homes and homeless encampments on the same block. Street homelessness in Venice appears to have exploded in recent times, which is of course a vexing and heart-wrenching problem for many communities.
While overall we did enjoy our stay and appreciated the host being responsive to some different issues that arose, there are nonetheless a few things to note that were less than ideal.
-- For some reason, there was a mosquito infestation right outside of the front door to the unit that resulted in mosquitos entering the apartment. The host did send someone over to help resolve/improve things.
-- Related to the above, there aren't any screens on the windows and all the windows and doors are old (the apartment overall shows its age), which translates into gaps around windows and doors making it easier for insects to enter.
-- We had some intermittent internet connectivity issues...nothing that bad, but something to think about should you need 100% reliable high-speed internet.
-- There is a large Cannabis dispensary around the corner with armed guards (most likely due to the fact that it's usually/largely a cash-only business). It didn't prove to be an issue but is just something to know.
Perhaps the biggest disappointment we had in the end was the inability to resolve an issue that arose toward the end of our stay (refrigerator not working properly), which resulted in both unexpected expenses and inconvenience. While we found the host to be very friendly and helpful, the level of responsiveness was ultimately uneven. We tried to reach him several times to discuss and resolve our concerns after checking-out, but were not able to do so. As a result, we deducted a star for our overall rating for the property and our stay.
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