If you are an experienced airbnb traveler, then this is a “no brainer,” you will love Marcella’s condo. It is clean, secure, and accessible by foot, public transportation or car. If a problem arises, Marcella is quick to respond. The patio door lock mentioned before is still tricky, but you can get it to work. The bed is more comfortable than any bed we have ever slept on at any hotel. Ample room was provided for our clothes and personal items; clean towels were available as well. Loved watching her copy of the movie Princess Bride one night.

If this is your first time with airbnb then you might need to overcome the awkwardness of actually sharing space with the owner’s personal items. But, if your host is like Marcella, clean and hospitable, then it should evolve more into feeling like you are visiting a relative or close friend. Although we never met Marcella personally, her online and phone call communications were prompt and friendly. Early on in our stay, the kitchen sink backed up due to a problem with the plumbing that was occurring in all of the units in her building. We notified Marcella and, the next morning, her boyfriend Franko showed up to fix the plumbing issue. When we returned from our walk to Balboa Park, we found that he also washed all of our dishes!

We spent little time in restaurants, we cooked our meals in Marcella’s well equipped kitchen. We spent a lot of time out on the porch; breakfast was delightful because of the eastern exposure to the sunrise from the patio. The neighborhood is quiet, making our night sleeping relaxing and restful.

If you are part of the [ahem] mature generation, as we are, then all of the online interaction to set up this arrangement may be unsettling. I had to hold my driver license in front of the camera on my computer to register with Airbnb. Airbnb does charge a fee for service and I found the registration to be a little challenging, but I am not yet accustomed to online business. When Franko met us to check us in, he took a picture of my driver license. I feel that a certain level of trust needs to occur for this to all work smoothly so that both the host and the guest feel safe and secure; it seemed to me that Airbnb tries very hard to enhance that level of trust and so did Marcella in her communications with me from the very beginning.

Would I do it again? Possibly. Marcella has set an extremely high standard; if I traveled to any other location, I am still not sure what I would do. But, we had such a positive experience with Marcella that if we visit San Diego again, I would first check the availability of Marcella’s condo before I would even reserve the airline tickets, the experience was that positive for us. Thank you Marcella and Franko!