This a nice space and worked for our family of 4. It looks and feels new. Also, it now has a small microwave (another reviewer mentioned the lack of one).
It is located right near a bus stop and about a 15 minute walk to the closest BART train station. We didn’t have a car and used public transportation to travel in and out of San Fransisco over the course of 7 days.
FYI, If your plan is to use this location to make day trips into San Fransisco, just know that it will take you 1 hour to 1.5 hours one-way using public transit. While doable, this became very taxing with small children. If we had to do it again, we would have stayed in San Fransisco.
Pack a sound machine if you like to sleep. The street that the unit is on is very busy and super noisy. I think 5 in 10 cars in Oakland don’t have mufflers! It does eventually quiet down in the early morning. For those from the city, it might not be bothersome.
As the unit does not have AC you need to keep the windows open to let fresh air in. This doesn’t help with the sound situation at night.
There were a couple hiccups early in our stay that might highlight a need for better attention to details when turning the space over between guests.
When we arrived there were 2 towels total, no hand soap, no dish soap, no bathroom soaps, no dishcloths or wash cloths, and no detergents.
The floor was so dirty that the bottom of our feet were brown and black. The rest of the unit was clean though. Maybe the cleaning crew skipped the floors?
We reached out to Sierra about these issues and she made sure those items got rectified by the next day.
We’re used to there being basic condiments, spices, cooking oil and other small provisions being stocked in the Airbnbs we’ve stayed. So it was a little surprising that this unit was lacking those things. Come prepared to have to purchase those items on your grocery run.
All in all, the space is well taken care of and has a great layout. The location is a bit nicer than the surround neighborhoods, but it’s still in Oakland. Oakland, in general, is a bit rough. Lots of graffiti, trash, and homeless camps. However, in all the walking we did, we never felt unsafe.
Again, we travel with small children and do make meals at the places we stay, so our experience might be very different than traveling with adults.