Overall, we had a nice stay at Janet and Scott's place.
It's in a wonderful location, and the house is nicely decorated and has the basic amenities.
There were a few things that made our stay less than ideal:
- The parking spot is not just small but at an angle. We had a midsize rental and could not really get it in there comfortably. In our five night stay, we were only able to find parking on Capistrano (the street next to the house) once, and the rest of the time we had to park on the main street where you have to watch for street cleaning signs, etc.
- The house does not have A/C throughout. There's a wall unit in the living room. There are ceiling fans in the bedrooms. The weather wasn't super warm during our stay but it was still a bit uncomfortable in the bedroom.
- There's Roku but not regular cable, so be prepared to sign in with your own credentials.
- Check out is 10 am instead of usual 11 am that most Airbnb hosts use.
The hosts are generally nice and provide great tips and recommendations about the area. My husband and I have stayed at numerous Airbnb's in the U.S. and personally prefer hosts with the attitude of "mi casa es su casa." On our last day, Mother's Day, we were out looking for apartments and got an email from Janet asking how many of us were there, that they happened to walk by the unit and saw there was a party on the patio. We immediately responded that there was just two of us, that we were out, had not used the patio, and she could call us. What was more concerning to us was that within minutes of responding, she sent us a message outlining the non-party policy that would result in getting kicked out of the unit without a refund. On the phone call, even though the issue seemed to had become pretty clear to Janet - who explained herself that the party who had rented the other 3 units (owned by someone else) for graduation/mother's day had stepped over and helped themselves to the patio - she kept asking if we were friendly with the neighbors. The combination of the tone and the repeated questioning felt like an indirect insinuation that we had given permission for the use which was not true.
The same tone existed when we landed and had not received check-in instructions for a 7 pm check-in. When we called, we kept being asked if we booked it the same day. We had booked it two days before, and either way, if it's not too late to take our money, it's not too late to send the instructions. At the very least, at that point we really would have appreciated them just apologizing that there was a glitch and assuring us they'll send them right away.
Based on the other great reviews, maybe this was just an outlier, but I wanted to share our experience. The location is absolutely fantastic for a weekend beach stay, so I think with a few modifications, this could be a great Airbnb.