This was a very difficult stay for us. We stayed there 2 weeks ago and it has taken me this long to review since we were so upset about the entire situation. We were not messaged before our stay to let us know what to expect of the home, I had to message to ask questions.
When we arrived, we realized what a bad part of town it was in. The neighborhood felt fine, but as soon as you tried to find a safe grocery store or restaurant, you had to drive pretty far to get out of the rough area.
The oven was broken, and apparently has been for 9 months but we were not informed of that until we arrived. It was in the pictures of the kitchen and it wasn’t stated anywhere, so it was assumed everything worked. Most of our meals were for the oven, so food was wasted and I had to rework our entire meal plan that I had shopped for and driven to California from our home 5 hours away. From what I’ve gathered, they are still waiting for a new oven.
The hot tub was broken! Another thing we were not informed of, and when I texted Zeina she took 4 days going back and forth with us before sending someone out to look at it. Sometimes she would just stop communicating with me completely until I asked again. It seemed as if she thought it was our error. Once the repair man came out on day 5 (we left 2 days later), he said there was a bad part. So we missed almost our entire week of using it- and it had been a selling point for us booking it.
It’s also important to note that no one is allowed in the hot tub or even outside after 9pm (although there is another paper that said 8pm!) because it’s too loud for the neighbors. That puts a damper on vacation.
We reserved the home for 6 guests and we only had 4 towels and 1 washcloth. I spent days texting her to get more with no response, and finally on day 4 she texted back and gave me the code for the garage to get more towels. They were there the whole time while we took showers in shifts and washed towels in between. So frustrating.
No guests are allowed at the home, which we also didn’t know until we arrived. We had told the owners that we were visiting for a destination wedding and all of the family was in town. In order to not get “evicted immediately” (as the paper stated would happen) we had to leave and go to our family’s rentals in order to see them. We rented this bigger home so we could host during our vacation, after not seeing most of this family for 2 years because of the pandemic.
Overall, the home was comfortable to sleep in and we did feel safe. The TVs worked and the bathrooms were fine and we never ran out of hot water (because we had to take showers in shifts).
But I feel like our expectations were much higher for such a cute place AND I am shocked it has such good reviews after our experience! I really depend on reviews, that’s why I’m writing this one to make any future renters aware of these things.
We have used Airbnb several times and have never had issues like this. I do not recommend this home for your San Diego stay.