It was a long day roaming the streets of San Francisco on a crisp autumn evening. My girlfriend and I made the exhausting, though ultimately pleasant, mistake of traversing through the 70 degree hills of North Beach and Telegraph Hills for much of the afternoon. We were spent.

After hitting up a restaurant and with the sun’s perspicacity fading, I looked to my partner with a sort of quizzical expression, asking silently if it was time to call it a day.

“Yeah, let’s go home”

The “home” in question would be Florencia and Brian’s wonderful space, the aptly named Splendid. This being my first experience with Airbnb, I was reticent about the whole enterprise. After all, most media outlets are keener to highlight disastrous vacation stories rather than those Perfectly Acceptable ones. Yet to suggest that what Florencia and Brian offer is “Perfectly Acceptable” would be a great disservice to the kind of distinct and memorable experience they provide.

A delayed flight prevented us from getting to the site on time – to which Florencia and Brian were able to accommodate. Brian greeted us upon our arrival, giving us a tour of his artist’s space and the living/loft space found above. With a delightful French bulldog in tow, Beto, he assisted with our luggage up the spiral staircase and offered his share of anecdotes about the space and its esoteric offerings.

First and foremost: this is an artist’s space. During our stay, Brian was in the midst of working on a commissioned project for the SF Fire Department, a fusion of Indian architecture and contemporary design of impressive scope. As my girlfriend and I would leave the loft for our expeditions through the city we would often encounter Brain diligently at work in the studio. Yet never did we get the sense that we were impeding on his space nor was he in ours. There’s a friendliness and warmth that’s cultivated here and I can only assume it’s amplified the closer your neural tendencies jibe with Florencia and Brian’s sensibilities.

The living space is as terrific as advertised. A cozy living room space with a fireplace found my girlfriend and I end our terrific nights by the fireside, reading whatever books we picked up at City Lights. There's a massive kitchen that makes the thought of home cooking not daunting, but actually welcoming. The comfort of our quarters and the affability of our hosts made our stay in San Francisco perfect. It felt like home.