Here are the facts about our stay.
No exaggeration or downplaying, just the facts.
I reached out the the host weeks before our stay since I have an Immunocompromised 5 year old. I explained that we were coming for a stay related to my sons health conditions. I received no answer.
We received details about our check in 24hrs in advance as per AirBnB policy. I informed the host that we would be arriving late due to some complications in travel and also received no communication.
We arrived and were welcomed by several homeless men, arguing about something right in front of the property. We pulled in and they moved in front of the empty lot next door.
In the home, we did not have time to look through everything so we quickly unpacked and got ready for bed, upon entering the bathroom we noticed the towels were all stained and ripped. We sent pictures of our findings to the host. We looked for towels but couldn’t find any and the linen closet was closed and there were no other towels available.
We went to bed and were abruptly woken up at 4AM by the sounds of a truck backing up and it’s lights lighting up our room like the sun had just come up. Needless to say it woke up both kids who were sleeping in the back rooms where the light and loud sounds came in from. This happened 2 of the 3 nights we stayed there.
We didn’t receive clean towels until 9:45AM which really conflicted with our schedule of events for the day. The towels we received were not cleaned or washed and due to the delay we were forced to use unwashed and unclean towels.
We also found Pests all throughout the property. There were ants in the kitchen the living room and the bathroom. We also saw a cockroach at night but it ran away under the cabinets when the lights turned on. It was pretty disgusting.
I met Charles when he dropped off the towels at the property and he was very nice and apologetic. He claimed the cleaning company used the wrong towels, which I believed him, but wondered why would the cleaning company not say anything about that to them directly. However, not my position to talk about.
I also spoke with a gentlemen named Tim, whose signature read Service Manager/ Owner. So I don’t know if that meant he was the owner of the management company or the property, however, my interaction with Tim was less than desirable. He seemed confused by our simple requests and maintained that we were the first people to have ever complained about any such issues. He said that no other guests had ever had such an experience. Nonetheless, I asked Tim to please bring us new towels and pillow cases since my pillow case was also stained dirty. The same one that was slept on the night before.
Tim said he would bring new items to the home while we were away. He offered to enter the home and leave the towels and items inside or leave them in the back patio. Due to homelessness situation I decided to give Tim authority to enter the home and leave the items in the front room. Tim later admitted that he had not only entered the property to drop off those items but spent several minutes inside of the home with our personal belongings inside of the property unsecured and exposed. This felt like a major violation since it was not what we had agreed to. We decided then and there to pack up and find a new location. We had already been speaking with AirBnB support who reimbursed us 20% for the three nights that we were forced to stay in the home and then reimbursed us 100% for the remaining nights.
Overall it was a terrible experience for all of us involved. Including the hosts. Not only were we not happy with how everything went down but we had to spend time and money to find a suitable stay for the reminder of the nights which we had to find a place outside of San Diego to stay within our budget.
Needless to say we would not recommend this location to any other guests. However, if you have to stay somewhere just be aware of what you are getting into.
The home is conveniently located in the Hillcrest Neighborhood of San Diego which is minutes to the zoo and other great attractions. We were able to walk to have dinner on two of the nights that we were forced to stay in the home due to the fact that we couldn’t rebook another AirBnB property in time and all the hotels were booked due to multiple events happening in San Diego that week and throughout the weekend. We also would have needed 2 rooms which most places couldn’t accommodate due to the occupancy rates.
Other the location and the value those are the only two positive things I can say about this location.
If you can find another property if not good luck with your stay.