One of the things that we look for when we read other people's reviews relates to cleanliness. A number of people had indicated that this place was sparkling clean. This was NOT our experience.
First, when you walked in, there was a sign that indicated that you needed to take your shoes off and that if you brought in dirt on your shoes you would be billed an extra $20. The funny thing is that there were fingerprints all over the wall near the sign and the carpet in the stairwell and bedroom was filthy.
Next, there was a sign that said you needed to wash your own dishes or you would be charged. When I looked at the coffee cups that were in the cupboard, they were all cups that I would not drink out of without washing again. There was a clean dish towel and sponge provided, but given that we were sharing the kitchen with another guest, I didn't really feel comfortable using them. Plus the other guests left jelly all over the counter and on the faucet handle, which was kind of annoying.
The bathroom was shared with one other guest, which was fine. We were each given one bath towel, and we did not have any hand towels or washclothes. There was also nowhere to hang the towel in our room, and leaving it in the bathroom led to a towel mixup. Also soap and shampoo were not provided. There were bottles of something in the shower, but we were unsure of what we were allowed to use. The shower itself needed to be clean and the sink was very slow to drain.
It was also stated that there was a deck with wonderful views, but the only views we had were up some great big trees. There were also no chairs on the deck, it was really old, and it was definitely not clean. It was too bad that they weren't a couple of chairs out there, because it would have felt really nice to sit outdoors. We never once felt any air coming through the vents, and we came back after a day at the museums, our room was stifling. We did contact our host and he said he could turn on the air conditioner if we would go open the windows in the living room. We ended up opening the big sliding glass door in our room to let in the cool air, which worked out okay. However there was no screen door, so we could not leave this open all night. That was VERY unfortunate.
I had let our host know that we would be on our bicycles and that we would need to do laundry. He said that would not be a problem. However, he did not tell us that we would need to bring laundry detergent with us. Bummer. On a positive note, we were able to store our bikes inside.
It was also made very clear that the expectation was that people would be quiet after 9:00 p.m. however the second night we were there, we heard people talking until.almost 1am, at which point, I had to knock on the door next to us. I think that it was the host who was talking with his family.
What we did like was that it was a large space, the bed was extremely comfortable, and it was located in a safe neighborhood. Dennis promptly answered all of my questions and provided a spare bath towel. there were also little bags of gluten-free chips on our pillows when we arrived. This was the best thing about our stay.
We definitely left it cleaner than when we arrived.