We were only able to stay one night at Russell's location before departing despite planning to be there longer. Russell was kind and communicative before we arrived.
We arrived late the first night and let ourselves in. We were not aware that the main level of the house is 40+ stairs above the street. Getting our luggage up to the house upon arrival was a full cardio event. This was rather entertaining, if unexpected,
Unfortunately, when we made it to the main house there was a pungent and quite unpleasant smell. Russell kindly offered to come address the situation but it was late and we were still sweating from the olympic sport of getting our luggage up the side of the hill, so we declined the offer.
Alas, we found it difficult to sleep that first night due to the overwhelming smell. Then, just as we were getting some shut eye the sun woke us at dawn. While the main bedroom sports a stunning view of Los Angeles, its curtains only cover part of the floor-to-ceiling windows and so the sun floods the room in the morning. Add to all this that neither of the two internet passwords provided worked and all in all our first night had a Fyre Festival feel to it.
By the morning it had been such a comedy of discomfort that we decided to find a more welcoming place for the rest of the week.
The house has a lot going for it and I think if you check-in with Russell to show you around you'll avoid many of the problems that we ran into on our first night.