“Disappointing” is the first thing that comes to my mind. If you ask my husband, he will say “Disgusting”. This is called a "luxury dream home", and the house itself is great with beautiful windows, layout, and a style of furnishings which complement it well. Unfortunately, the first impression as we walked up the steps the first time was that the place is poorly maintained. The exterior grounds, furnishings, and equipment including the outdoor kitchen which you walk past to get to the front door were all filthy. There were leaves and plant debris all over, and the tiles had not been cleaned in a very long time. Once inside, we found all the upholstered furniture in the living room and dining room to be shabby, torn in places, and completely covered in stains. We were repulsed! We threw beach towels over the furniture before we sat down. We were so concerned, we pulled all the sheets on the beds back to make sure there were no bed bugs (fortunately, there were none).
In addition, the original posting when we booked stated that there were three parking places on the premises, we would have access to a pass for on street parking, and we could purchase another pass for an additional fee for a total of 5 parking spaces. I even clarified this information with Sina shortly after we booked since we were prepping for a wedding during our visit and would need spaces for our vehicle, a few guest vehicles, and the hair and makeup artists, too. When we arrived, we found that the only spot on the "premises" was in front of the garage doors and we could use one other spot with the parking pass. We contacted Sina and he gave us another pass but insisted we were mistaken about the number of spaces which would be available to us.
We met Sina in person the second day on the property when he came to check on some work being done to the garage. When I expressed my discontent about the cleanliness and that our feet were all black from walking in the house, he said it was because we had been walking around inside with shoes on. Our feet would not be black if we were walking inside with our shoes on. He continued to dispute my claim insisting that the people who clean use a steam cleaner on the tiles. I contended they were not doing their job and was kindly telling him that he is paying for services which are not getting done. We were returning from the store with our second package of Swiffer wet pads when we met him. We had used an entire package on only the first floor and it still was not clean. Since we were having a bride prepare for her wedding in the house, we did not want her clean dress soiled by walking across such dirty floors. Sina told me that we should have reached out to him on our arrival about the issue and would have sent the cleaning people over. Who wants to have cleaners in the house during their visit and disrupting their plans? We should not have to be inconvenienced when it should have been done in the first place, and when we are paying a hefty cleaning fee.
My discussion with Sina shifted to the parking situation, and he continually insisted I was mistaken about the number of spots available and that the garage could not hold cars. We said we had no way of knowing the garage could not hold cars and that he had confirmed the number of spots in a text exchange we had when I booked the home. He said we should have known from the photos that the garage could not hold cars. There are no photos that would indicate that, and there was no way for us to know considering the information in the ad at the time I booked stated there were three spots on premises plus additional passes. He denied he had confirmed the information in a text exchange until I was able to pull up the messages and show them to him. Then, he just dismissed it as a mistake. It’s a mistake which had us scrambling and booking UBER transportation we hadn’t planned on. (Note: the current listing differs from the listing at the time we booked, but we were not notified in a change in the parking situation. In addition, if we were to trust the photos, we would have thought there would be a baby grand piano available to us).
Our discussion with Sina regarding the shabbiness of the furnishings, all of the stained upholstery, and the outdoor areas being unusable because of their filthiness were met with comments that it was a rental and that the price was right based on the location. He said this is what you can expect from an Airbnb. If we wanted a place with newer furnishings, he had another property at another location for twice the price.
I sent Sina a lengthy list upon check out of all the things in the home which did not work or needed attention. He ignored my message and did not respond.
IF YOU:
- are used to cleanliness
- plan to make use of or entertain in the outside areas without spending hours cleaning them yourself
- want to sit on furnishings that are not threadbare, torn, covered in stains, and don’t look like they have been used continuously since the house was built in the 1920s
- are turned off by a light fixture over the kitchen island that has a stained lampshade and is full of dead bugs
- want to come or go when it is dark outside and have properly lit walkways and stairways
- would like more than one kitchen towel
- expect luxurious linens and bath towels
- expect soap for the showers to be provided
- don’t want