My family and I stayed here for a 4 day weekend in January.
I’ll start with the Good.
- Location, in the hills of Encino. A beautiful and diverse neighborhood with really good food options. Nice way to visit LA without being in the middle of busy city traffic.
- The nice location lends to a beautiful view. The view was incredible. There are windows throughout the house showcasing the stunning view.
- The layout of the house was great for our kids. No stairs. There is a cute nursery room right next to the master bedroom. The kid toys were an unexpected plus.
The not so good:
- Communication, disorganization. I pre-paid for pool heating. I paid to have the pool heater turned on the day before we arrived. When we got there, the pool was ice cold. I inquired - they initially claimed that I never paid for pool heating. Upon sending them my bank statements and receipt - they went ahead and brought someone to the house to turn it on. We were in the middle of our dinner at a restaurant - the many phone call interruptions, we’re not ideal. I initially asked for a refund, to which they responded with a late check out offer. This didn’t seem reasonable since we all had to work. I escalated to AirBNB support and eventually got the money back for pool heating, as the temperature did not even get close to heated upon check out. Keep this in mind - it takes at least 3 days to reach a heated temp so do not purchase this if you’re only staying for a weekend.
- Main bedroom has a very uncomfortable bed situation. We looked underneath the next morning, and found bricks stabilizing the bed frame because it was broken. Yes, red bricks. That is why it felt like we were caving in every night. Upon informing them of this with photos, they did not send anyone to replace the bed frame. When I checked in with them later, they said “Oh do you need us to send someone for that issue”? … I guess I didn’t make it so clear from the photos. Their response: they were going to send someone out on our last day, to fix it, when we only had one more night.
- Be careful with kids running around. There are several electrical outlets that are hanging out casually in certain places.
- Finally, the biggest not so good thing. Roaches. Yes, roaches. On our first day, two (each about 3 inches long) came out of the drain in the main bedroom shower. I let them know immediately, with photos and videos, to which they responded with bringing out an exterminator about 24 hours later. The exterminator came out the next day, when we arrived home after him, there was an incredibly strong odor of chemicals. We opened all windows, doors, no big deal. However we found another 2 roaches in the same shower hanging out. We called them again, they were rude, saying I was “complaining”. I think most people would not want to live with roaches in their AirBnb. Either way, I wanted my refund so that I can get another home, and unfortunately they would not go ahead with that. I escalated to AirBnb support, and the hosts were extremely strict about offering me any kind of refund even for the rest of my stay. They also weren’t clear, saying that they could not reach the property owner on a Saturday night to get their permission for any refund. So we went ahead and completed the reservation, as it was unfortunately very stressful trying to check out early without any security of knowing that you might get the money back. Fortunately we just used different things and tape to tightly close off the drains and any other potential place the roaches could be coming in, and we didn’t see them again after that.