David’s place was a decent place to call home for a month and it has the potential to be a great place. I’ll start with the positives.
The location is great. It’s on a bus route and a short walk to several others. There are 2 grocery stores a few blocks away. The neighborhood is attractive and quiet. The place is very spacious and has a large and well equipped kitchen with a dishwasher. The bathroom is in good repair and the shower is lovely and hot. The queen size bed is comfortable and the linens are good quality and soft. The twin beds, though a bit creaky, are reasonably comfortable as well.
Now the less great elements, beginning with the legitimate safety hazards. In front of the dishwasher the tile is broken creating a sort of ditch of about 1.5” which causes pain to your ankle or foot when you step in it or onto the edge of it. The boards beneath the doormat on the back porch feel like they may give way at any time. Less dangerous than annoying are the floors, which are very old and in need of insulation and reinforcement, so they creak loudly with every step. This becomes a problem if one person wants to sleep and the other wants to move around, because the creaking caused by the mover will inevitably wake the sleeper. On the topic of noise, a major issue is the upstairs neighbors, who seemed to either not realize or not care that there were people beneath them trying to work or sleep. They stomp with great force, drag furniture around, vacuum, and yell late into the night (past 12:30 am). They also produce an excessive amount of trash, much of which they placed in our recycling bin. I would say that they were clearly raised by wolves, but wolves are stealthy, produce minimal waste, and possess self-awareness, and would make far better neighbors.
The ratio of cheese graters to outlets is roughly 1:1, which is to say there are quite a lot of cheese graters and hardly any outlets. Not a fatal flaw, but you may wish to bring a few surge protectors.
The other issues can be grouped together under the topic of lack of attention to detail. When we arrived there was about half a roll of toilet paper. There was trash on the back porch and the outdoor area in general was neither clean nor inviting. The laundry area was so filthy I balanced my freshly washed delicates on my shoulder while I put the rest of the load in the dryer, rather than have them touch any surface in the room. The kitchen counter has a large wooden lip, making it extremely difficult to clean. There is no vacuum, so if you’re there for an extended period of time there is no way to clean the rugs that are scattered throughout the apartment. The living room sofa is maddening to sit on because the cushions keep trying to make a break for it. There is no guide telling you the ins and outs of the place, directing you to the laundry area or informing you which day to take the garbage out, etc. When the host does respond to inquiries, it takes hours or days, and the answers are not always satisfactory.
My overall impression was that this place could be great with more attentiveness to guests and attention to detail and a few physical improvements. I got the feeling that the host is largely absentee and rarely sees the place, and that they mostly collect the payments and outsource the day to day care of the place to others. When I asked if there was more toilet paper stored somewhere they responded (after I had already gone out and purchased toilet paper) that the cleaners were supposed to restock. When I asked what day the garbage should go out they didn’t know and suggested I do what the neighbors did. When I let them know the upstairs neighbors hadn’t taken their trash out and that this had created an unpleasant odor throughout the apartment, they did not respond at all. When I told them the upstairs neighbors were making so much noise late into the night that my wife had to check into a hotel because she was taking the CA Bar Exam and could not afford to be underslept, they responded days later saying that I should have told them sooner so they could address it. We still had several more days there and they could have addressed it at that point, but they chose not to. To me the response lacked both accountability and authenticity, as my previous message received no response whatsoever. I should note here that we are easy going people who don’t complain unless it’s absolutely necessary. I do not send food back unless it is literally rancid and I tip 15% only when service is poor or mediocre, otherwise I give 20 or 25% as a matter of principle.
While David’s Place was far from terrible, I will say that my main takeaway from this experience was learning the difference between a Superhost, who takes pride in their attention to detail and in providing an excellent guest experience, and a host whose goal is to have minimal involvement and leave the operational duties to employees. Next time I’ll be sure to choose a Superhost.