As much as I hate to give a negative review to a nice person, this rental was not a pleasant experience for us. Our hope for an Airbnb is that we’ll get a property that is clean, tidy and ready for guests with the convenience of being in a real neighborhood and a home with a kitchen and living room. We are not expecting to have to ask for repairs and services as if we were renting a poorly maintained apartment.

The a/c worked for a few days but then stopped blowing out cold air altogether. We texted the owner. She promised a new a/c unit. We waited several days. We came home one night to find a fuse had blown, spoiling the food in the mini fridge. We texted. Luckily, we found the fuse box quickly and fixed that one ourselves. Days later, we got the new mattress. Unfortunately it had the same sagging feeling as the old mattress. Turns out the box springs were shot. We let the owner know. Several days after that we got a board to put under the mattress because the building manager said the new box spring by itself was too expensive. We decided that the board would do in the time we had left.

When we were two days away from leaving, we got a message that the owner was having outdoor repairs done. Turns out they needed to bring in a bulldozer(!), dig a deep trench inches away from our door, and fix the wall that bordered the apartment.

We couldn’t believe this work couldn’t have waited two more days, until there were no tenants in the basement.

Perhaps more frustrating than anything was that there was an issue with cleanliness. The floors, lampshades, and ceilings were not clean when we moved in.

As an overall experience it just felt like the unit wasn’t ready to be rented out, and that the owner hadn’t actually spent any time in her own place. We saw all the positive reviews on AirBnB and rented because of them, but did not find them to be true.

To be fair, Reed is a very nice person, and seemed to want to make things right when we brought them up to her. But after a while you get tired of complaining. Besides, when you’re paying $90 a night for someplace, you don’t expect to have to hang around the apartment waiting for someone to come and fix things, as if you’re at home.
There were positives. Our dog did love the yard, and Reed supplied a free laundry room. She also let us leave our lease early when we found a permanent home in DC sooner than we thought. This review is not an indicator of her personality, but of the place itself. But, unfortunately, Victoria Haven is not a place that I would recommend anyone stay, not in its current state.