Overall, our stay was disappointing. It should be noted that we stayed in this location for a month, so that should be taken into context. Some of the things discussed below may not be bothersome if you are only staying for a weekend or a few days. But for us, we experienced so many inconveniences which really added up over the course of the month.
There were a few positives about staying in this location, including how close it was to many different areas such as downtown Asheville and the surrounding neighborhoods. The coffee shop downstairs, Gallivant Coffee, was great. It had the best pastries and coffee. This was the best part of the apartment. The gluten-free options are amazing. Even if you don't stay at this Airbnb or even if you aren't gluten-free, highly recommend.
There were many negatives about our stay, including mismanaged communication. It was quite difficult to get a hold of the property manager, and many times we were reminded that the hosts were out of the country and communicating with them was difficult. There were multiple instances where the property managers did not respond to our messages for 2-4 days, and we had to follow up to get a response. Other times they completely ignored our messages and did not respond at all.
We had some packages delivered over the course of the month, and smaller packages were delivered to the mailbox, as is often the case. However, we were informed we were not able to access the mailbox, as it required a key and the owners were out of the country. We were not informed of this in advance and it was a huge inconvenience.
There were no screens on many of the windows, including both of the windows in the kitchen, and being it is Asheville, NC, there are many bugs outside when you open the windows. The fan above the stove also did not work, so in order to cook, we had to open the windows, which caused many bugs to fly in. We messaged the property manager about getting screens on the windows, and they replied, "There should be a window in each bedroom and the kitchen with screens to be able to get some air flow." When we explained there were no screens in the kitchen or in the second bedroom, they replied, "The owners are out of the country and have decided not to purchase any more screens at this time. So sorry for the inconvenience!!" When we explained this had been a significant inconvenience and we would be willing to purchase and install screens ourselves if they would reimburse the cost, they never responded to that message.
About a week into our stay, the drain in the shower was clogging. They did send a plumber to fix that. The water filter in the fridge needed to be changed when we arrived. We also needed more toilet paper. They sent both of these things via Amazon. The water filter in the fridge required significant installation. I'm not sure if they expected us to install it ourselves, but we had to ask them to send someone over. They sent someone who had no idea what they were doing. The girl was able to figure it out eventually by watching a YouTube video.
The fridge/freezer was positioned in such a way against the wall that the freezer door doesn't open all the way, which was super annoying and did not allow us to utilize the bottom drawer because we were unable to open it.
This unit is located on a busy intersection very close to the highway and also is part of a duplex with another unit sharing the same entryway. The walls are super thin and you can hear the traffic noise at all hours of the night, including beeping and people revving their engines. We could also hear the people in the other unit banging around until 1 or 2 am every night. There are no blackout curtains, so you can see the lights of the cars driving by all through the night. During the day, the coffee shop below is quite busy, and the parking lot is right outside the windows, so you can hear people's conversations, doors slamming, and beeping.
The people in the other unit had to walk right past the window in our kitchen to get to the entrance of their unit, and other people even walked by the window thinking it was the coffee shop, so there is not much privacy.
There were only a few hangers, so if you have a significant amount of clothes that need to be hung up, you will need to bring your own. We had to purchase some. There is a very small medicine cabinet in the bathroom, so we ended up buying some hanging storage to fit our bathroom products.
Overall, Asheville is not a walkable place because there are no sidewalks. Keep this in mind when traveling here.
There is very little counter space or cabinet space in the kitchen, and there were a lot of knick-knacks around which we ended up putting away so we could utilize the space more efficiently to fit our needs.
There are only a few small trash cans outside which are shared by both units and the coffee shop downstairs which fill up quickly. There is no recycling, so we had to sort our recycling ourselves and transport it to the recyclery.
The thermostat did not allow us to set it below 68 degrees. The duvet cover provided was very hot and with the door closed, it is even hotter in that room than in the rest of the apartment. There are no nightstands in the master bedroom.
The dryer is stacked on top of the washer but the controls are at the very top, and even someone who was 5'7 was not able to adequately see the controls, so it's very hard to tell what you're setting it for.