Our stay at Alex & Daniel's was the most discouraging experience I have had with Airbnb as a guest and host of many years. Overall the Airbnb had positives as far as location and amenities, but it’s all kind of irrelevant because near the end of our stay there was one incident with another person in the house that made us feel uneasy about our safety, and we later found out it was one of the hosts themselves who made us feel this way.
You’ll notice in the descriptions that the hosts have a tenant in the home as well as an additional Airbnb room, so there are a variety of people staying in the house at all times. We were given self check-in instructions and never met the hosts or anyone else staying in the house, which was absolutely fine until late one night when a man’s voice shouted by our door “I smell weed and that’s not okay!” No smoking was clearly stated in the house rules, but we were left wondering if this person meant to direct their shout to us or to another person in the house as sound travels easily throughout the old house the unit is in. We also didn’t know if this person was their tenant making an aggressive threat (the hosts have info and reviews on Airbnb but the tenant is an unknown person to Airbnb guests). It made us feel threatened and uneasy not knowing who the person was who was shouting in the house and if they were interested in making further aggressive outbursts. My partner suggested it was coming from the part of the house the hosts lived in, but I was skeptical because I thought if it was a host they would just knock on the door instead of shouting at the door and walking away. We thought about reaching out to the hosts to let them know about the harassment going on, but it was unclear if it was actually one of the hosts saying it. In the interest of our own safety we didn’t feel comfortable bringing it up until we were gone with our belongings. Alex & Daniel noted on the listing that they just want everyone staying in the house to be respectful and harmonious, so we hoped we could share our feedback after we left and they could address the issue so no other guests are harassed in this way in the future by whoever it was. But in the morning we saw that the hosts had sent us a message later that night accusing us of smoking cannabis in the room, ("We are are aware that you are enjoying all that San Francisco has to offer. To be specific, marijuana...") making it clear that it was them who shouted in the hallway rather than just knocking on the door or calling us to check in. We clarified that we absolutely did not break the house rules and had also smelled cannabis in the building earlier that day. They messaged back and had clearly made up their mind that they think we were smoking in the room and that they may need to charge us for smoke damage. I’ve been a host myself so I know what it’s like when people aren’t respectful of your property, and if we wanted to find an Airbnb host who allowed smoking indoors we would have done so. Overall our experience in the property was okay but it was really insulting and hurtful to be falsely accused of something.
The building is very cute and has a lot of character, but it’s also old so you definitely have to be okay with things like loose doorknobs, a shower door that doesn’t close all the way, a mattress with multiple sink holes from repeated guest use, etc.. There was also a pet in the room upstairs that would run around the room and make a lot of noise at random times. The check in instructions were thorough and helpful, but there were still a couple things that weren’t clear. For one, there were 2 sets of unlabeled keys and we didn’t know which set was supposed to be for us so we just had to do trial and error. It would have also helped if they gave some tips about the bedroom door because you had to pull it really hard to be able to turn the deadbolt lock, and it took us a minute to figure that out ourselves.
The room was superficially clean and the amenities were helpful. We appreciated having a fridge and iron, and the most helpful thing was their willingness to hold our luggage before checkin and after checkout so we could make the most of our stay in the city. There is a lot of potential for a good stay at this Airbnb but I would strongly advise any guest to be aware of the overall lack of professionalism by hosts and be ready to face much scrutiny if they or anyone randomly staying in the house with them at the time has been exposed to smoke.