TL;DR: I stayed here for 3 months. The room was clean, but house is not -- especially the kitchen, which is filthy. I would not recommend staying here for long-term rentals.
This interview is informed from having lived in Angela’s home for 3 months.
The great:
* Angela is an incredibly warm and kind woman who is very pleasant to talk with. She is also prompt with texting messages.
* The home is well located. It’s close to Super King for affordable groceries, and is a short drive into pasadena for anything more ambitious.
* The room is spacious and clean when I arrived. The private bathroom is great to have, plus access to an in-home washer and dryer is a great convenience. The bed is comfy!
* A fine place to stay for short trips.
The Mixed:
* The shower dimensions are a little cramped. the stall is roughly 4’w x 3’d. I am 6’ tall and wished the shower head were a good 4” higher. A few reviews mention this. If this is a concern, you should ask for a picture of the shower (which is conspicuously absent)
* While Angela’s dog is a sweetheart, it is sad to see him relegated to a small backyard. The yard has become an overgrown litter box and is full of dog poop, rendering it completely unusable.
* Despite my room's listing prominently featuring the back porch as a guest space, this area has been repurposed as the dog's living space. The listings pictures are misleading and it's not possible to use.
- The dog barks a lot. If you are staying in this room, you will definitely hear this every morning around 7:00 am, and every night between 9pm - 12am.
The Not-So-Great:
- You’ll need to wear your shoes at all times inside the house. The common areas are very dirty. Previous reviews mentioning this are chalked up to renovations, though having stayed here for 3 months with no renovations undertaken, I can authoritatively say this house is very poorly insulated from the outside and dust collects over everything.
- The kitchen was very dirty when I moved in, with a layer of grease on the windows, counters, and cabinet surfaces. The top of the fridge is covered in a thick brown mat of dust and grease. Kitchenware (bowls, plates, utensils) were also greasy (more below).
I spent the first few days cleaning the kitchen in order to comfortably use it. Angela did reimburse me for any cleaning supplies I purchased, but this should absolutely not be something a guest should *need* to do for any rental, at any price point.
- The home gets very dark once the sun goes down. Half of the lights in the kitchen do not work and despite requests for this to be fixed/replaced several times, I ended up having to unscrew working lightbulbs and move them into the places I needed them.
- The oven needed to be cleaned before you could use it. It generated a ton of smoke the first time we used it.
For long-term renters:
- If you cook, meal prep is a struggle. Despite having a generously sized kitchen, There is very limited cabinet space for long-term renters. The available storage is taken up by a hodgepodge of old plates and glassware. There are many pots and pans, but they are either rusting, burnt, warped, or encrusted with past meals. The oven is used to store additional pots and pans, requiring that it be emptied and the excess stored on the counter. This would not have been as much of a problem had Angela not recommended I bring my own pots and pans for my stay. The kitchen storage is a complete mess.
I could overlook these issues were I staying for a short weekend trip or the room cost was half as expensive, but they made my long-term booking very unpleasant. For $1,150 a month, I would have expected a much better experience.
I would caution anyone against staying here — especially for longer bookings.