My family and I were very excited to book this beautiful property and to finally have the once in a lifetime vacation we had been planning. Covid had prevented us from gathering the year before and also postponed my sisters wedding. We were looking forward to some much needed time together and to finally having a wedding celebration in San Diego.
When we arrived we were immediately taken aback by the outside seating areas and views, it was the perfect place to enjoy the cool San Diego weather. The home is decorated very minimally and with modern furnishings. However had our babies been any older it would have been a more challenging location as there are glass tables and an open staircase. There is a nice turf area in the back yard but it leads to a steep unfenced canyon. Its just not a kid friendly property. It was a nice surprise to find both a high chair and pack-n-play in the closest but we wish it had been in the amenities listing because both my sister and I had purchased new pack-n-plays for our stay. The property was clean when we arrived and Jamal (our contact for the stay) let us in a few hours early which was great!
As we went to bed the first night we discovered the front door would not lock from the inside. The very modern lock would turn but not engage the deadbolt. We tried several times to make it work before I both called and messaged Jamal to see if we were doing something wrong. We considered just locking the door from the outside and entering from the back that night but we were concerned with the safety of being unable to exit the front door if there was an emergency. After waiting awhile for a return call from Jamal we barricaded the door and slept with our individual rooms locked that night. I called Jamal again, first thing at 9am the next morning about the lock not working. It then took several hours of back and forth; us sending him photos and videos showing how the deadbolt was not working and asking for further assistance. Finally at 2:30 that afternoon Jamal offered to send a locksmith out to the house. When the locksmith arrived he told us he had never seen a lock like that one before, and therefore had no idea of how to fix it. His solution was to leave us with a pair of pliers to lock and unlock the door during the remainder of our stay. When I shared this with Jamal he agreed it was a very unprofessional fix but never apologized for our inconvenience and the time it took from our vacation to deal with this, nor made any further offer of having the deadbolt replaced during our stay. I was a bit shocked that for $725 a night we were now using a pair of pliers to lock and unlock the front door from the inside of the house.
Unfortunately the enjoyment of our stay continued to decrease as we realized the upstairs air conditioning was not working properly. The air condition never cooled the upstairs below 78 degrees and each night when we went to bed it was at least 80 and very warm. We started sleeping with all the windows open on the second floor and that helped some, but it was still pretty miserable sleeping conditions. On Friday I sent Jamal a message asking about the AC and if there was a trick to setting the Nest thermostat. Saturday afternoon he offered to send an AC repairman to look at it but at that point we were getting dressed for my sisters wedding and leaving the property the next morning. I had messaged Jamal prior to our arrival asking for permission for the the bridal party to get dressed at the home, which he graciously allowed. We were specifically excited about using the spacious upstairs with the beautiful views. Unfortunately it was just too warm of an area to use while getting ready.
It should also be noted that while the views of the canyon and bay are beautiful, it is not mentioned in the listing that planes are landing approximately every 8 mins from 6am to midnight. It was very loud and we were grateful to have the sound machines we brought for the babies so the noise could be muffled while they slept.
Sadly the challenges we had with the deadbolt, the AC, and the constant jet engine noise made it difficult to enjoy our stay as much as we had hoped to. $725 a night is an awful lot of money to be paying for these things to not be working properly. We expected much more for that price and overall we were disappointed. We wouldn’t chose to stay here again if we ever came back to San Diego.