The good:
-you get to stay on the property of a mansion that once belonged to one of San Diego’s first and most successful musical store owners. Walter Anderson designed the first landscaping and the garage you use i believe belonged to his daughters
-the furniture inside the home was really cool! Everywhere I looked there was somewhere inviting to sit!
-the table is larger and has nice big comfy chairs (not like the one that is pictured, better!)
-the host accommodated an early check in time for us (:
-the room upstairs is super cute, the decor is very trendy yet relaxing
-the refrigerator dispenses water. I love water
-nice toaster, fridge, and lots of supplies for cooking! Even some basic condiments
The bad:
- for $400 a night, it would be nice to not have to enter through an alley which at night is very dark . Yes there is a garage so you can park your car there and enter but if there have more than 2 cars it would be problematic. I wish this was mentioned in the listing.
- overall the place was unique but there were some areas in the home that needed more attention to cleanliness. The steps had marks on the white parts, the window screens are detached and broken from the window, thus could allow for bugs to come in (was not a problem for us because we just kept the windows closed). The garage also had lots of dust and a random can of paint by the entrance, not the nicest sight to see as it is your first impression.
-2/3 of the clocks had the wrong time.
-Some of the lights were out on the dinner table, so it was dark. We turned on the lamp but still, it would be nice to have working ceiling lights.
-the controls for the heater/cooling was not working effectively, despite our best efforts we couldn’t figure out how to adjust the settings. Host should provide manuals.
-the host took much longer than the stated “1 hour” to respond. I had to double message and it made me feel like I was bothering him, IMO, a host should provide clear communication to prevent this
Overall, it’s an okay place to stay, mainly for the history. I would honestly go as far as to say the provided address is incorrect because you literally have to walk/drive the entire half perimeter of the block to get to your actual entrance . The host needs to provide a different address to avoid confusion. It’s a cute place if you can overlook these details