Pros: The room is spacious, bright, and cute.
Cons: The kitchen is not kept clean or tidy at all. The host is nice, kind, and friendly, but not tidy and mindful of shared spaces. She did not react well to feedback and became extremely reactive and rude so I had to contact the Airbnb and ask them to help me relocate for safety concern. It was unfortunate because I liked her before that, but I didn’t feel safe or welcome after that interaction.
Other things to note:
-the washer and dryer is not in the unit and is shared with a few other townhouses. The listing does not clearly reflect that. When I read that in the reviews I requested a refund—about 3 days after booking the place (a day after free cancellation period) and more than a month and a half in advance, but she asked for $500 penalty. So I ended up not canceling.
-the shower is shared with the host but the upstairs bathroom is kept clean. The smell from the downstairs bathroom was bad twice during the week I was there. Other days were okay.
-The train noise is frequent and kinda loud especially if you keep the window open, but the location is great basically 5 mins walk to Caltrain. I had noise cancelling headphones so it wasn’t a big deal.
-the room is upstairs so a bit inconsistent if you have a lot of luggage
-there was no shampoo in the bathroom so I had to go to the grocery store when I arrived which was not convenient
-My stay ended on a bad note with the host, but she was overall very helpful and nice before I contacted Airbnb about the kitchen problem. She left cute notes and half of her pastry for me and offered to take my picture to send to my mum back home. I told her that a messy kitchen makes me feel overwhelmed, I also sent her a nice text on Airbnb, saying that I really like staying with her but I hope we can find a way to keep the kitchen clean. She apparently did not see my msg, then I contacted Airbnb and Airbnb called her and she took it very personally and became aggressive and shouted at me.
Overall, housing in the Bay Area is awful. If you don’t wanna use the kitchen and don’t mind the train noise this could be okay.