I’ll start with the positive: the location is beautiful. The views at the top of the hill are amazing. While the hill is steep, and it’s a workout pulling your luggage to the door, it really is a stunning view of the city.
The apartment itself is cute. Fixtures have been updated, the bedroom has nice windows, bathroom is nice. By “cute”, I also mean it is teeny-tiny. Fun-size, is you will! Great for 1 or a couple.
Which leads me to my next points, which unfortunately are not so positive. The apartment was listed as “spacious” for 5 people, so I had 5 people in my group. I DO NOT recommend this AirBnb for any groups over 2, max 3- it is way too small! The 5 of us were on top of each other, bargaining for time in the teeny bathroom, not able to pass each other in the hallway/closet, there were only TWO forks (barely enough supplies to cook in the kitchen reasonably), and we seriously struggled with sleeping arrangements.
There is one queen bed and one small futon. The queen is comfy enough for 2 ppl, and the futon can fit 1 adult comfortably- by that, I mean it has enough space for 1. The futon has a big fat bar underneath it that you definitely feel when you lay down, so I would not recommend using it as a bed.
Then, there’s the air mattresses... two of our guests had to sleep on them (provided by the host), and two out of four nights, they COMPLETELY deflated. After the first night, we complained and the host left other air mattresses outside our door. Well, he got the sizes wrong and provided two twins instead of a queen, which didn’t fit in the bedroom, and he didn’t provide bedding for the two twins. Then, he complained that we were being too loud late that night when we returned. Well, that’s what happens when 5 people have to brainstorm where to find extra bedding for different sized air mattresses, how to arrange them since they don’t fit in the room, and THEN how to inflate them ourselves (let alone the actual inflating which was obviously loud as well). Then, with our luck, the twin air mattresses deflated that night too, leading to a lot of back pain and bad moods for the second night in a row. Thankfully, when we complained after the second night he provided us with a brand new queen air mattress and a partial refund, which worked well the rest of our stay.
However, my second point: the host lives DIRECTLY ABOVE the AirBnb. Meaning he can hear you, your conversations, your music, closing doors, etc. and he is very sensitive to noise at certain hours. This wasn’t advertised before I paid, and had I known, I wouldn’t have done it because I knew we would be coming back late at night. It’s never a good time when you have to keep shushing 5 people every 5 minutes in conversation so that the host won’t kick you out. On the plus side, we can definitely say he is responsive, so there’s that.
Long story short: if you are 1 or 2 people, go for it. It’s a good jumping off point to see SF as long as you keep it quiet after 9pm. If you have more than that... look elsewhere. It is not nearly “spacious” enough, the host will hear and not appreciate your noise, and you don’t want to risk it with the futon/air mattress situation.