For $450/night, we expected this to be a high quality rental, and we were very disappointed. In fact, this is the first Airbnb that we considered losing our considerable down payment and paying a penalty for in order to leave and stay somewhere else. One of the primary reasons we rented it was for the back patio. Although the listing mentions that the rental is adjacent to another rental, the photos do not make it clear that the back patio has no privacy, and that renters in the adjacent property walk past the living room windows, entry doorway, and through the patio to get to their rental from the street in front of the house. The shared washer/dryer are attached to this rental, so when the other renters use it, they walk past two of the bedroom windows to the laundry shed attached to this rental. They walk through the patio to get to their car (parking in back). Their rental windows also looks directly out on the back patio without any privacy landscaping or fencing in between.
This is all fine if you don't want privacy when you are having meals outside, or coffee, etc., but it isn't what the photos convey. I walked out one morning to find the cleaning team using the washer and dryer to prepare the other rental for the next guest. The spaces are quite small (the photos are misleading), so it's a bit of a surprise to bump into a stranger early in the morning right outside the bedroom door. The first night, the other rental had a guest visit, and as I stood outside they came past the front door into the patio with a large black dog that lunged and barked at me. Not private, not relaxing. The front patio is narrow and very exposed to the street, which, due to close proximity to a major beach, gets a lot of traffic. That's the outdoor space.
Inside, the cottage is fine, but a bit run down. It reminded us of a heavily used dorm room--both in terms of the upkeep and the economical furnishings/decorations. If you are someone who is sober, this is the wrong place for you, as nearly every item hanging on the walls is about drinking (several nylon flags and posters with "It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere" written on them, and "Margaritaville" on nearly everything else). For lighting, they are large fluorescent panel stuck high on the walls--like what you might install in a workshop or garage. The paint is peeling in places, and the shower curtain was moldy. Etc. This would all be fine for a much lower nightly rental fee, and I see that the cottage is now listing for $167/night, which would be a lot more acceptable. The second and third bedrooms are really just one room divided by some closet doors hung from the ceiling, and offer no privacy for whomever is staying in them.
As many others note, to access the living room from these combined bedrooms, you must either go through the primary bedroom, or through the courtyard (so get fully dressed, since you never know who will be out there). While we were there, it rained a lot, and an outside outlet arced out and melted, filling the house with acrid smoke. This happened twice before a repairman was sent to fix it. He noted that the wiring was installed incorrectly, and that it should have triggered the circuit breaker to avoid a fire. The cottage is also very dark, with few windows and almost no natural light. If you open the blinds in the corner windows of the living room, people walking by on the street or to the back patio look directly in.
The drain from the roof empties at the front door, so we got dripped on or drenched our entire stay every time we went outside. There also were no door mats for wet/muddy feet, so we used towels. There weren't enough blankets to keep us warm at night (we don't like to sleep with the heater on). Luckily our son lives in San Diego and we borrowed blankets from him.
All of that said, I had asked in advance if the sheets and towels could be washed with unscented laundry detergent, and they did this, for which we were very grateful. Management was nice about everything. Again, for the currently listed rate of $167/night, this is a perfectly fine place to stay, especially in the summer when you will hopefully be at the beach most of the time. It was not a nice place for $450/night. This was a splurge for us, and I write this detailed review to allow others who may plan a similar holiday when the pricing is again high to know what to expect. San Diego's best hotels during this period were renting at half this price.