I'm surprised I'm not writing an excellent review after the many good ones I read, but after my stay in Dan and Traci's skyroom my life turned into episode 21, season 4 of Seinfeld, "The smelly car".
Premise: I stayed for one month, so I got to know the place fairly well, while working at the Berkeley National Lab. And I work with microscopes, so I'm very keen to small details.
The room was nice and spatious and with essential furniture, and looked clean at first, although after a few days I started noticing a population of dust bunnies behind the bed frame, spiders making frequent appearances, garbage fallen to the side of the fridge and never picked up.
The common spaces, namely the kitchenette and stairwell leading to the room, shared the same vibe: clean on a superficial level, but a careful observer would notice things like dead (and alive) bugs and spiders, and spiderwebs... the place would benefit from some periodic thorough cleaning looking up and around, and not just down to the floor.
But coming back to "The smelly car". I immediately noticed that the place had an unpleasant smell, mostly in the common stairwell (the carpet?), so I kept my room well aired out... or at least I thought so... little did I know that the smell would have followed me back home, filling my living room as soon as I opened my luggage. Long story short, after airing my clothes for two days in the freezing Canadian spring, and rinses with baking soda, the smell is still there. The smell got everything: my clothes, my laptop, my mouse, my glasses, even my nail file and the paperboard case where I store some medications... It even got to my partner's clothes (that were not part of my trip, I was traveling alone) that I put in the same laundry cycle when I genuinly thought that a simple laundry wash would have gotten rid of the smell.
A few minor things:
- On Airbnb it's specified that breakfast is provided. Muffins were offered to me a couple of times - so was that breakfast for my month stay?
- On Airbnb under 'cooking basics', it's also specified that oil, salt and pepper are provided, but after asking Traci I got a not so nice "you should buy your own things" in reply. Funny enough, I ended up donating her my leftovers and she was very impressed by my generosity.
- Sometimes Traci has virtual or in-person cooking classes, so you cannot access the kitchenette at those times. That didn't impact me, but I found the request weird.
- Dan was really nice and very fast at responding to emails. However, Traci seemed quite bothered by having people around, which is interesting if you decide to rent three rooms of your own house and place the kitchenette beside your working space.
- The kitchenette would benefit from a second hot plate.
- I saw Traci using the small toaster oven of the kitchenette a couple of times - a bit of a shame 'wasting' your guests' resources when you have two professional ovens at your own disposal.
PS: I noticed Dan and/or Traci replied to all bad reviews dismissing the comments as an exception. Maybe I was unlucky and there was some reason for the smell and lack of thorough cleanliness, but if so that should have been pointed out, and a repricing considered, because I don't think I got what I paid for.