Unfortunately we were somewhat disappointed with our stay in Mary’s place. Our main issue was that we found it very hard to relax and enjoy our time in Mary’s room as there were nine signs outlining various rules posted on walls in the room, one of these was an 11 point list on the fridge. As the exact address is not given by Airbnb until after booking, we were surprised by the distance to La Jolla, Windansea or Birdrock. The house is about 1km on a map from Windansea beach, however, due to the hills, there is no direct path down, meaning that it is actually quite an isolated address and closer to a 4km journey downhill. Other aspects that upset somewhat, particularly given the lengthy rule lists, were that the water filter change light on the fridge was flashing and wouldn’t dispense any water, meaning that bottled water needed to be purchased, and despite the BBQ utensils being left out for guests, the gas cylinder was empty. This feeling of finding it hard to relax was compounded by Mary waiting outside our door before the 10am checkout on our last day. The studio was smaller than expected based on the photos, with everything being quite cramped on top of each other in one room.
Mary’s apartment has huge potential, it is a lovely quiet area with a very comfortable bed, a great shower, lovely views of Windansea and plenty of towels. Mary communicated well with us, particularly around check in/ out. If the place was given a good clean and a few pieces to be sorted out such as the filters and gas, and I would really recommend removing some of the warning signs or to review the tone of them. Also a car is a requirement.