I appreciated all of the thoughtful touches like the robes, the clean curtains and helpful notes posted in the apartment. The hosts were very responsive via the app and very nice. The first night I noticed that a bathroom window had been left open and I was concerned for my safety. I looked at the other windows and found the one closest to the bed to be broken and unlockable. They came and jammed it into the lock the next day, addressing the situation promptly. When I arrived and heard the extremely loud family upstairs playing extremely loud TV, I talked to them and they responded right away. They had provided a white noise machine but it still very loud. The building is old and the floors are thin. I don't how anyone could ever live in this place full time, maybe that is why no one does. It was a challenging experience because it was so loud between the upstairs neighbors and the loud street noise. When inside the apartment, because it was on the first floor, I never felt at ease, and kept the curtains always drawn. There was an intermittent dropping noise like a ping pong ball hitting wood that sounded like someone knocking on the door, which freaked me out. It felt like the apartment could use a lot of structural updates as well as updates to the broken and soiled blinds and the broken stand the TV is teetering on. I don’t watch TV so I didn’t need it, but it was crooked so I tilted it straight and noticed it was loose. I really appreciated how responsive they were as hosts and how you addressed the broken window lock overnight. I chose the apartment because though I knew I’d have a complicated commute to the Bart and SF, it looked beautifully decorated and tranquil. This all was extremely superficial though - they did some beautiful set dressing but the materials were cheap. In reality it was not tranquil at all, but loud and I felt unsafe with all the broken glass outside and people wandering around the parking lot dumpsters right outside the window. The door lock to the outside by the bathroom didn’t seem very strong either, which contributed to the feeling of unease. I left a day early because the experience was really not very pleasant. Oakland has its own grit, and that is not the fault of this apartment, but this was not the oasis it appeared to be.