The place is absolutely gorgeous, well-designed, stylish and ideally located. You can easily walk to Venice beach and Abbott Kinney. It's super spacious and the gadgets are modern (the TV and sound system are amazing).
HOWEVER, we did not have the most pleasant experience with the host. It was in fact one of the worst that I had ever encountered. I totally understand that the host is concerned about his place and wants to keep it pristine, but we experienced rude, disrespectful and condescending attitude when we first booked the place. The first thing that we were asked was how old we are and why are we even doing in LA. After telling the host our age, he replied along the line that because we are young, we are more likely to not respect house rules and party. I was totally offended -- we were respectful professionals who just wanted a place to spend the weekend together (and I have over 15 positive feedback), but this host, without knowing any of us, made the presumption that we're just there to wreck his house. This is absolutely unfair -- we found his house so beautiful that we didn't even drag our luggage up to the rooms for fear of ruining his wooden floor.
He demanded that we sent him all of our IDs through email, which I don't even know if it's accepted with Airbnb. Sending a stranger your IDs through email is just odd, and this is where Airbnb should come in and verify its users, not the owner. I refused to do it for fear of privacy. Again, very unpleasant experience.
We were told that check-in was between 1pm to 3pm. I begged the host to let my friends (I was willing to send him names and IDs of the guests) check in first, as I had an important meeting in downtown. But no, I was forced to drive all the way from downtown back to Venice for checkin, and back to downtown again for my meeting later. If the house is for 6 guests, why can't the other 5 check in?
Our communication with him improved, but overall it was one of the most unpleasant and unwelcoming hosts I've ever had on Airbnb. The house is absolutely wonderful and we get why he wants to protect it, but that doesn't mean he should be assuming the worst in us. I never felt so unwelcome staying at an Airbnb before. If you're so concerned, perhaps you shouldn't even be listing your place here in the first place.