I’ve stayed at great and very good Airbnb’s. This was not one of my favorites.
Unit A has a large oval decorative glass window in the front door. This door is on a small porch along with a public toilet for the patio area. Across the porch is an outdoor kitchen sink. No covering is provided for the window. You may want to dress in the en suite bathroom if you need privacy.
Motion detector security lights on and near the porch are activated multiple times per night by people, stray cats, and wind-blown stored items. The room gets very bright as a result.
The other windows in the room overlook a tightly packed used car lot. This puts car alarms and occasional shopper conversations very near.
The property location is convenient to bus lines, bike rentals, shopping, and food. There are strip clubs, brothels, car lots, mini storage, restaurants, homeless campsites, and drug activity happening on the street. Dangerous crime and break-ins seem rare and there was minimal police activity during my stay.
Those are the minor annoyances.
I paid for a unit with a kitchen. The microwave is huge but the freezer section of the fridge is tiny. Lots of usable counter space. But, strangely, cooking in the unit is not permitted. I discovered this to great embarrassment when the host and her son rushed in on the first night to grab the induction hob and still sizzling skillet they left for me to use.
Cook outside on the patio they told me, as they replaced the modern and clean hob with a smelly butane camp stove. I was provided with one small gas can at a time and cookware that did not fit safely on the burner. I ended up buying cookware and basic cooking utensils. I was not cooking with curries, fish, or anything with lingering smells.
There is a coin operated washer and dryer on property ($2 each). The dryer gets very hot on the low temperature ‘delicates’ cycle and it has no moisture sensor. All my synthetic fitness and travel clothing were damaged. The machines appear new but the host declined to have them serviced with the mistaken hope that shifting the machine position slightly would reduce the temperature.
Reviews and photos show a common courtyard area. They don’t capture the hassle that the outdoor furniture, decorations, covered areas, and clutter creates for taller, thicker, or disabled people as they navigate from the front gate to the rooms and to the laundry. Wood and metal beams, glass light bulbs, and draperies hang well below the 6 foot mark and require constant stooping and careful navigation to avoid. There is no clear and open path to any room from the front gate. Luggage and shopping bags will make this more difficult to traverse.
The lack of privacy I experienced wasn’t just due to the glass front door, or the security cameras facing the porch, camp stove and front door of my unit. The host was unnaturally and repeatedly interested in the food I shopped for, meals I cooked, and the frequency of my laundry washing (I travel with one weeks wardrobe and do laundry once a week). Call it small talk, curiosity, or xenophobia - the lack of respect tends to linger.