Helen is a wonderful, beautiful soul, and a terrific host. It was great to hear her story and chat with her a bit, and she makes great eggs and crepes for breakfast. My boys and I were visiting Magic Mountain, and this was perfect for us. I shared the queen bed with one son, while the other slept on a single at the foot of the bed. The room was large enough that we were very comfortable, we were 5 minutes from Magic Mountain, the shower was great, and the price was excellent. The unit is very close to restaurants, shopping, groceries, etc, but is in a great, quiet neighborhood.
After staying with Helen for 2 nights, we traveled to Carlsbad to enjoy the beach, and that first night in the hotel in Carlsbad I came up with 8+ reasons why I will choose to go the Airbnb route everytime I travel and here are a few reasons why: comfort at a reasonable if not more affordable price, screaming kids outside the hotel room, hearing every footstep in the room above us, got stuck in a smoking room, the towels are paper thin and scratchy, and there was a sewer cap about 20 feet from our room that reminded us often that it was 20 feet from our room!
After my few experiences with Airbnb, I'm sold on the Airbnb experience. To me, it provides a much better and more personable experience, and is usually a much better value than most any hotel for the price.