We stayed at Black and White Bungalow for 3.5 months. Overall, we had a great stay and the place is as advertized. This was our first long term Airbnb experience and I suppose when you spend that much time at a place, you’re going to find some elements that aren’t ideal.
First, the really good aspects:
- Location is great. Easy access to the metro to get to Santa Monica beach or downtown (for staples center etc. very cheaply and easily). Loads of great shops, restaurants, and coffee spots nearby that suit every budget. We were never short of options and it’s ideal for a local’s experience in a cool, hip part of LA.
- Kitchen is really good. It’s small but the gas stove top and oven were great quality and fridge was a good size. I like cooking and really enjoyed it here. It has everything you need to cook up a storm.
- It’s funky. If you watch tv shows where they renovate old places to turn them into an AirBnb with some personality, this looks like one of them. It’s modern, cute, functional, and has a great little outdoor seating area at the front which we used regularly while having a coffee in the morning. Open up all the blinds and windows and there’s loads of natural light.
- Comfortable, very firm, king size bed. We slept really well on it.
Some of the negative elements:
- Internet. The owners have used a WiFi extender to get internet into the Airbnb from their other property. Whilst probably not a problem for most, this drove us crazy when watching live sport through Hulu/Sling or when Skyping as the internet would drop out every 20-30 minutes. It would come back on a minute later but it was very frustrating. We mentioned this to the owners on a couple of occasions but it was ignored.
- Owners. The owners seem like really nice people but we always felt they were too busy to prioritize managing their Airbnb. They didn’t mean badly (they gave us some lovely local chocolates at one point), but this was the first Airbnb we’ve stayed at where it really felt like a side business. At one point, the owners went into the unit while we were not home, which we were very unimpressed with. They had the right intentions as they were replacing something but they never said they were coming in or asked our permission - this should ever happen. We still don’t think they believe they did anything wrong in this regard as there was no apology either. They organized construction to start on the place next door during our stay (shared common wall) and we were never told about it (they were also fair in refunding 2 nights of our stay, which was very generous). Generally, when minor issues occurred (or things like internet went down), I felt like I had to chase the owners. Fair enough, they have their own jobs - but waiting many hours, in some cases days, for a reply or not hearing back certainly doesn’t make you feel your stay is their priority.
- Location. We loved the location but be aware there are a number of homeless people in the area. The ones we encountered were harmless and mostly friendly, but it was hard walking past this almost directly outside the property every day (sometimes literally out the front door). As a result, my wife didn’t feel safe walking around the area at night. If you don’t know LA, there’s huge amounts of homelessness, so I’m sure many other places will have this issue.
- Communication. No information on anything in the bungalow. We were surprised coming in for a 3 month stay there was no welcome from the owner, a note, restaurant tips, rubbish collection, recycling information etc. It must be the same for their bungalow at the back as we were woken a number of times in the middle of the night by people trying to get in the front door, mistaking it for their other Airbnb. The first time it happened, my wife was alone and thought someone was trying to break in at night. My wife called the owners multiple times and never heard anything back. So clear communication and more thought for guests’ experience would be good.
All of that probably sounds like a really negative experience, but it wasn’t. We really enjoyed our time there and the positives we listed are all important aspects. A lot of the negative elements won’t impact many and could also be easily rectified - but having spent $11,000 on our time there, they bothered us.
The only real deal breaker for us was the internet connection, that aside, we would still recommend. 4 stars seems fair, all things considered.