My experience at Lovely Space was unfortunately not a positive one, I will say that had everything gone smoothy, this would be a good place to stay, especially if you are on a budget. When I arrived at Patricia's trailer it was Wednesday evening. I followed the check-in instructions she sent to turn the power on but the power did not come on. I reached out to Patricia asking for her guidance. In the meantime I looked around the trailer, there was a unwrapped sandwich leaving a very pungent smell in the warm fridge, as well there was an item of clothing hanging in the small closet. After an hour with no response, it was dark and since there was no lights (or power), I headed to a Starbucks and continued to message her. After 3.5 hours of no response and it being past 9pm I ended up booking a hotel for the night. Patricia contacted me the next day, explaining that was she in Alaska and would have her son fix the trailer that afternoon. I was in town for a conference and had a cooler of food and supplements that needed to be refrigerated, given my hectic schedule, the trailer not being operable upon arrival and Patricia not being reachable or arranging for someone else to be available, I decided to stay where I was at. I communicated all this to Patricia and asked if we could chat about the possibility of some type of refund especially for the first night. Patricia was very kind in her communication in regards to assuring me that her son fixed the trailer, however she did not acknowledge the fact that the trailer was not completely cleaned, there was no-one available upon check in, the fact that I had to find another place to stay and my request for some type of refund.
Once I returned home, I contacted her again about what we could work out and she responded by telling me there was unfortunately nothing she could do and offered to host me again at no cost in the future. Although I appreciated that offer, I have no plans to return to San Diego and I did not believe that was reasonable given my experience. I contacted Airbnb directly and fortunately they were able to view all the messages between Patricia and myself and I received a complete refund. I understand now why Airbnb urges communications to go through their website, given this experience it was valuable to me that they were able to follow our message thread and I was able to recover those funds and did not have to pay for 2 places.
ASIDE from all of that, the trailer is small and quite old, however Patricia has done a lovely job with the space. Some parts were updated and even though it was small it was quaint. If you are on a budget and traveling with a companion I think this would be a doable space. The neighborhood is not appealing, I was traveling by myself and driving in I had concerns about the safety of the area. In one of her responses she assured me that despite its appearance the area was safe.
I understand my experience is not the usual experience and I believe that if Patricia were in town things may have gone differently and even though communication was respectful, I don't believe Patricia responded appropriately to the situation. I cannot give this a high rating, I feel 2 stars may even be too generous.