The suite is welcoming with a huge closet and a really nicely done bathroom. Debra was nice enough to allow me to drop some things off earlier than the scheduled check-in, which I really appreciated. However, there was some miscommunication about parking and who would actually be present at the property. I wish I had been told that the person who was staying at the house wasn’t Debra, and that I could have exchanged contact info with that person so it wouldn’t be a surprise.
The first day, there was a car parked in the middle of the driveway and a big box and palm branch on the more empty side of the driveway. This made it impossible to park in the driveway without damaging my rental car so I messaged Debra and let her know that I had parked on the street behind another vehicle in front of their property and that I could move it if needed. I described the location and car so she could let me know if it needed to be moved.
On the morning of the second day, I received a message back asking if the car had been moved, which was weird to me since I knew someone who I presumed was Debra was in the house and nobody had actually asked me to move the car. That night, we met the woman who was actually there and Debra’s message finally made sense. That was a pretty awkward experience for my companion, who happened to be addressing a work emergency just after a shower. It would have been nice if she had offered to come back later but she insisted on having a conversation about the car as he was working his laptop, wearing only a towel. This was a bit intrusive but had the genders been switched this would have been much less socially acceptable. He asked her multiple times if he needed to move the car and she said it was fine. We ran into her while getting something from the car later and checked again that the car situation was fine. She said it would be better if we parked in the driveway and I asked whether the neighbors would be bothered by our street parking and she it should be fine. We tried really hard to get a definitive answer out of her. As we were standing in the driveway, I noted that it wasn’t really possible to fit a car there right now and she didn’t react to that which was kind of concerning. I don’t know why she didn’t just move her car over a couple feet or move her car into the garage but I’m not about to go to someone’s house and tell them what to do. She was otherwise nice though and gave us a great tip on a place visit but I wish all this could have gone smoother and less awkwardly.
We woke up the next morning to find the other cars had been moved off the street. I noticed that it was now possible for us to fit the car in the driveway! ...And a note on our car asking us to park it in the driveway… as if we hadn’t been trying to make this happen the previous two days. I don’t even know if this was left by the neighbor or the woman but there’s nothing like finding a note on your car to feel like you’ve done something wrong. Not great when you’re trying to relax on vacation.
So finally on our last night we had parked in the driveway like we were supposed to. On our last night there was a bit of a noise issue that I hadn’t anticipated since it had been quiet enough the other nights. I don’t mind hearing footsteps upstairs or a shower or even the faint sound of voices. The unfortunate thing we experienced was loud singing around 10:15pm, which is after the quiet hours that are listed on the property rules. Since we did not want to embarrass anybody, we tried letting them know that they could be heard by making noises that could be heard by this person but I think they were listening to headphones and just belting away. This was followed by a bath which is seriously loud, and more singing. The sound of the bath is not even really comparable to the sound of someone showering upstairs. And after someone’s drawn a bath, what am I gonna do, ask them to drain it and waste that? I wish they would have just been more familiar with the property and been mindful of that. At this point, it’s our last night and I’ll just deal with it. If Debra isn’t on the property, I’m not really sure what she can do to fix this. But really, with the bill at $610.79 for 3 nights, that’s a for profit kind of price rather than a casual hosting. I don’t expect to have work with so much uncertainty or to ask for all these things that I thought would be standard in a professional operation. If the price was lower I would understand more. This is probably not a typical experience on this property because the only issue I had with Debra was a slight miscommunication, but that’s all the more reason for my disappointment.