Valerie’s place is in a nice neighborhood with a good view and proximity to the airport. I would suggest the place to anybody but would flag the owner uses her disclosed WiFi cameras to actively monitor guest activity.
We booked this house out of haste because our previous host canceled our reservation 5 days before our trip. In the scramble, we accidentally listed the incorrect number of guests. This is when we learned of Valerie's camera usage. She flagged the issue after monitoring footage from her WiFi cameras. We acknowledged the mistake, were apologetic and explained it wasn't intentional. She was unwilling to be flexible or understanding of the mistake and insisted we were an inconvenience for the people below, yet the guests hadn’t even arrived for their stay. When we spoke with the guests below, they confirmed there were no issues and weren't bothered by the additional people. (We were 2 guests over with one being an infant. We are two families with kids who go to sleep early.) Through all this, Valerie insisted we pay $200 as a penalty and inconvenience fee for the other guests.
During our conversations, we realized how much Valerie was monitoring our activities. During one conversation she started asking about activity near our rental car as she was actively watching one of our family members move the car out of the driveway. While she disclosed the existence of cameras, she did not disclose how she would be using these cameras (aka monitoring or recording). In our opinion, this is a violation of Airbnb policy which she denied. I hope she changes this disclosure on her post for future guests. Knowing she was actively monitoring us caused us undue stress and anxiety.
We eventually paid her $150 as a compromise since there was no disclosed extra guest fee on her post and we weren’t an inconvenience to the guests below. I think this was a fair compromise. I hope other guests have a better experience.