Oh man, where do I start...
Giving two stars simply because of the host's quick and excellent communication (and their willingness to give me a full refund after I checked in and realized there was no way in hell I could stay there).
While the location is great (centrally located and awesome if you're a tourist), the building itself -- not great. And the apartment? Even worse.
Upon walking into the building, it literally smells like a mixture of cleaning products, weed, and cat pee. Very strong odor. There is one really small, really old elevator which brings you to the 4th floor. Checking in wasn't *awful* as the key codes the host gave us to get into the building and apartment worked just fine. We did have issues figuring out how to access the parking garage though. There were no clear instructions on that. Thankfully, the tenants of the building were really nice and helped us a bit.
But once we got checked in... it was just...completely not what I expected. At all. Actually, I was shocked that this listing had a handful of really positive reviews! So, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I am always one to keep it real... and I want to give anyone looking into renting this unit a proper dose of reality in terms of what you will be getting, so you don't make the same mistake I did.
1. There is only one window unit AC in the living room area. There are no AC units in either bedroom. In August. In LA. This apartment had no central AC and was unbearable to stay more than a few minutes in. AND... the one AC wall unit it did have, was basically broken. It was spewing water out everywhere and making really loud noises. I don't think any air was really coming out of that. Not enough to make a difference at least. So please don't be fooled when the listing says they have Air Conditioning... because they don't.
2. The lighting didn't work. As in... the light switches weren't connected to anything. The lamps only had lightbulbs, no lamp shades, and the lighting coming from the lamps was ... not great.
3. It was dirty... looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a long time. Mold, grime, dust... gross. And, when we checked in, there were crusty dirty towels hanging up in the bathroom.... It almost felt like no one had cleaned it since the last tenants checked out.
4. There was literally nothing we needed. I flat out asked the host ahead of time if I needed to bring extra towels. He said they provided towels (enough for two people). They had like, two body towels and that was it. They also don't provide: hand soap, paper towels, towel paper (you'd need to bring your own if you plan on staying a long time), hand towels, a window fan (because, I mean, without AC... you need SOMETHING), dish soap, a bath mat in either bathroom... the list goes on. It's very bare bones, in a sweltering sauna of an apartment. That smells like weed + cat pee.
We were supposed to say for 35 nights and couldn't even make it through two. We ended up finding another place, and thankfully the host was kind enough to give us a full refund. BUT... Airbnb is awful with their customer service and wouldn't do anything else to help us get out faster (their refunds apparently take 5-15 business days to hit your account). So we were essentially forced to stay there two nights until we could figure out our finances to be able to afford another $5K monthly apartment somewhere else.... (GRRRR) NOT WORTH IT.
I mean, MAYBE if you were planning on staying in the cooler months, and only for a couple nights, and wanted to save money, it would be okay? But you get what you pay for. And this place... isn't it. I'd much rather pay more $ to get something nicer that you can actually live comfortably in for those longer stays. I can't even imagine if we would've had to stay here for 35 nights.
The host was very understanding and accommodating, which we appreciated. I'll say that much. They were really kind to us and offered a full refund right away. If you do decide to book this place, hopefully you'll have a better experience than we did.