Let me start off with the good:
- The location is incredible. Neighborhood is artsy and cute. Easily & safely walkable to anywhere you'd want to go in West Asheville and only a short drive downtown
- Amanda was very friendly without being remotely intrusive throughout our stay. Honestly perfect level of interaction with a host and noise was never an issue.
- The garden is beautiful and whimsical and the chairs make it even more welcoming.
Given all of the above, I've debated even including the "bad" part of our experience (I already notified the host in our checkout message) but ultimately I feel like it would be irresponsible to not mention it for others booking.
- Cleanliness was an issue for us. I've seen a ton of reviews that make me think this must be a new or isolated problem, but the moment we opened the door there was a strong musty odor. I wrote it off at first - it's a humid summer and the area is a bit woodsy, however as we spent more time I noticed some corners/crevices of the room appeared to be overlooked during cleaning. Unfortunately, I also woke up severely itching with a cluster of unusual bites. I'm hesitant to even say "bed bugs" but the presentation of the bites coupled with some of the indications of bug activity in the room left me anxious enough to spend the next morning/afternoon hot washing & steaming every single article of clothing and luggage before we went to our next stay. Obviously not the way anyone wants to spend their vacation and really put a damper on the trip.
Again, from all of the other reviews I want to give this stay the benefit of the doubt but if I had known that this would be my experience I would not have booked.