I want to start this by saying that I have never left a bad review for previous AirBNB’s, so to not give E&G’s place 5 stars is not easy to do. With that said, the place was nicely decorated and had many good qualities about it. The furniture was clean and comfortable. E&G were excellent with communication and contacted us daily asking if there were any issues/to remind us about checkout procedures.
However, despite these redeeming qualities, there were many areas where this AirBNB fell short. First off, the description is not accurate and the size of the place is greatly exaggerated. We comfortably had 5 people staying here, but I can’t imagine how others crammed 10-14 people in this place. While the furniture was clean, the rest of the place was not presentable. For example, the walls/stairs had chipped paint everywhere, there were cobwebs throughout the house, and the garage was blocked by disgusting garbage cans (filled with flies, a woman’s pants/exposed underwear hanging off the handle, and multiple boxes of beer). As a result, the house had numerous flies from the garbage cans and we routinely could not get in/out of the driveway without moving these cans. The picture of the garage is misleading as it suggests a 2 car garage, which is actually a single garage that can tandem 2 small cars. We had a rented small crossover SUV (Nissan Rouge) and were unable to open the doors once parked given how tight the garage was.
The biggest complaint I had about this location was how “unwelcome” we felt. I understand that E&G may have been burned in the past by bad renters, but the place felt more like a prison than a home. There were threatening signs posted everywhere “reminding” you of house rules with threats of instant eviction and penalties/fees. The house rules posted on the signs are not the same house rules agreed upon on the AirBNB description (i.e. “patio access restricted from 10pm-8pm for LARGER parties” became “no patio access after 9pm for anyone” despite only having 2 couples in the house). To make matters worse, the neighbors all have signs posted on their yards saying “Neighborhoods are for neighbors, not for vacation rentals”. There are noise ordinance rules, yet the neighbors seem not to follow them at all with people screaming/yelling late at night/early in the morning. We were even unable to leave one day as someone parked in front of the garage.
Finally, this is not E&G’s fault, but I was highly concerned with the neighborhood. While the location is walking distance to Belmont Park, I was concerned about the local neighborhood. There were multiple individuals which appeared homeless and/or not in their right state of mind walking around at all hours. It got to the point where I did not feel comfortable having my child walk with me to the Starbucks down the road to get our morning coffees.
Overall, we enjoyed our time in San Diego. However, I was thoroughly disappointed with the listing. I am hoping these issues can be addressed for future clients. I believe this listing can be everything it is intended to be, just with more accurate descriptions and a cleaner/less threatening appearance.