If the review was just in regards to the place, my review would be 5 stars. The location was great. You're literally steps from both the bay and the ocean. The apartment was as described. Seemed to be clean and well maintained. The place is small and in a quiet neighborhood, so if you're a partier or traveling with a group of people, this place isn't for you. But it was the perfect size for me. As a solo traveler with no guests, the size fit my needs perfectly. The only issue with the actual place is I had issues with watching anything through the TV. I work in IT and getting my phone to connect the TV to watch football on Sunday was incredibly frustrating. So if a user is not tech savvy, you may struggle to use the TV. I did alert the host of this issue and they are going to look into it.
The main reason my review is lower is what happened after I left. Before I left, I made sure I had the place all nice and tidy and made sure everything was cleaned up, exactly how I found it. I was shocked when I was given charges for damages to the property. I also did not like the accusatory tone about being called out as a first time Airbnb user, that had guests (I told them I was a solo traveler and had no guests with me,) and that I failed to report damages to them. When I left, there was no damage that I could see and I looked over the place multiple times. The two damages I was being accused of were damages to two towels and a broken lamp. The damage to the towels was not noticed by me and was a total accident. I ordered a new travel sized acne kit, and it had a new product in the kit that I had never used before. Which had an ingredient that I did not know could cause bleaching. It must have happened on my last day of the stay, as the only time I used one of the towels was to wipe down the sink. Again I did not realize this until after the charges, when I finally put two and two together on what might have happened.
As far as the broken lamp goes, I honestly had no idea where that lamp was in the place and no idea how it got broken. From the picture the host shared, the lamp had an opening in the back where you would slide in the bulb and then a glass fitting that plugged the hole where you put the light through. Well it looks like the fitting that plugged the hole had fallen out and a small piece broke off of that part. I mean there's a chance I bumped it... but it could have easily happened from a previous visitor or by the cleaning person or just naturally fell out as it's a glass plug stuck in a glass lamp with no seal. I also would not consider the lamp broken. If this lamp was in my home, a little glue and that lamp would look as good as new as the plug would be facing towards the wall. There was also no reason to charge me for a brand new lamp to replace a lamp that is old enough that the host stated it was discontinued. I just really feel that after they noticed the accidental towel damage, that they looked for any way to stick it to me, especially considering the way they worded the reimbursement request message. I did end up paying for it, as I had no way to prove I didn't do it. But after talking and showing the picture of the lamp and the message from the host with co-workers, friends and family, who have used services like Airbnb before, pretty much everyone agreed I shouldn't have paid for the lamp and was most likely targeted for being a new Airbnb user. This experience did discourage me from using Airbnb in the future, and did tarnish the next couple of days of my vacation, as it left me very frustrated. I specifically picked this place because of the high reviews because being a new Airbnb user, I was trying to find a host who wouldn't take advantage of new Airbnb users. As far as the situation was handled: 3 stars. As far as the actual place: 5 stars. Thus the 4 star rating.