Pros: Paul was very quick and easy to communicate with! Check in/out was effortless. Also, the cottage is about a 30 minute walk from the river and 25 mins from the FQ so walking saves on parking fees. Street parking was always accessible.
CONS: This listing as pictured is very different from what we actually experienced. The pictures make the home appear bright, airy, clean and inviting. We arrived to an entranceway that had a garbage bag by the gate, cardboard boxes in the walkway of the tenant, random clutter, and no sitting area available as pictured. The backyard is dirt, not grass. It is also unable to be enjoyed due to no seating. When we walked into the cottage, it was dark and uninviting even with lights on. The air was set to above 80 and the entire cottage smelled of water damage/mold (We went through a cat 5 hurricane in 2018 and are very familiar with the smell). The bright red chaise lounge in pictures was deep red from dirt and appeared that wolverine has gotten ahold of it. The deep slashes in the chaise were then covered by a small throw. The comforter in the bed had an odd feel and smell to it so we chose to sleep with our own blanket over the linens and found a stained, but clean, quilt in the closet. The bathroom had someone else’s hair in it and on the walls in addition to a killed bug on the wall left to decay. I could tell the cottage was not properly cleaned (which was bothersome since we are still in a pandemic) and we had to Lysol everything before we felt comfortable bringing in our belongings. The worst part of our entire visit was the tenant in the adjoining house. While the listing states to be mindful of the resident, it appears the resident is not mindful of the guests. The cottage lists that there is 1 small dog and 1 cat on property…try FIVE dogs on property with minimal training (large breeds and small-we have large dogs ourselves so we are dog people, but our dogs know how to mind). We heard the dogs howling/barking everyday of our stay. Typically they would start around 630-730 am. They also started up around 330pm. I sent Paul a message and recording of the dogs and he stated he made contact with the resident but nothing changed. It was very inconvenient and disturbing to be woken up that early when you are supposed to be on vacation. The Sunday of our stay we arrived back at the cottage after a day of exploring to have all FIVE dogs run at us and proceed to jump on me not once, but twice, and scratched one of my piercings. The owner of the dogs did not say anything, apologize, or even comment on her dogs’ behavior. It was her boyfriend/partner that had to come remove the dogs and take them inside so we could get into the cottage. As a dog owner, I find that unacceptable. Also, be on the lookout where you step because when I stepped out of my car upon check in day I immediately stepped in dog poop outside of the property. Also, you can hear every single thing that goes on outside. Which is typical of Nola. But on several nights people actually perched up on the steps and had drunken conversations which got a little loud.
Overall, we would not stay here again. In our five years as Airbnb users, and 4th year as NOLA visitors, this was our worst stay to date. I even took pictures to confirm what we got versus what was advertised.