Both the property owner description and other reviews are generously misleading. I travel a lot, and always by airbnb, usually for a week or more. I have stayed in luxurious places as well as clean but very minimalist spaces, and both can be acceptable if some minimum standards are kept (cleanliness, a hot shower, and the facilities in generally good repair). Overwhelmingly my experiences with airbnbs have been very good. However, I felt misled by the overly generous description by the owners, as well as overly generous reviews by people (who seem too polite to tell the truth). This resulted in a five-night vacation that was less than comfortable. Depending on what you expect from a space, here is the brutal truth both good and bad.
Good: Checkin was easy. The place was easy to find. There was a place to park, and the price was less than other properties in the area, booking two months in advance (Newport/Middletown is an expensive area). The air conditioners worked, there was a tv and it was reasonably clean. I don’t know if there was wifi, since I had an iphone and little desire to hang out there. If you are: single, young, broke, just want a place to crash for the night, usually crash on other people’s couch, don’t shower regularly anyway or hot showers are optional, you are okay with a hard bed, and your other option is a tent at a KOA or your car, this place may be okay for you.
Bad (very bad): 1. The bathtub fixture did not work and you cannot fill the tub. The shower doesn’t work properly, so you will never get a hot shower. You will get about 60 seconds of a warm shower and then it turns cold. Interestingly, the bathtub faucet will give you hot water (but you can’t fill the tub), but when you flip the switch to the shower head, you lose that hot water. I have never seen this happen Before, and I have no idea how that happens. Five mornings without a hot shower was pretty awful.
2. There are two beds: The full-size bed is extra, extra firm and probably not comfortable for most adults. If you are driving here and can pack a foam topper, that is what I recommend. The queen size bed is simply unacceptable. It isn’t even really a mattress, more like a thick pad on a hard box frame. It was so hard and uncomfortable, that my husband and I had to split up for five nights in order to sleep at all, because the queen was terrible, and the full sized other bed was too small for a couple. I feel kind of bad that my husband got the really, really hard bed, and I just got the somewhat uncomfortable bed, but its over now and hopefully memories will fade.
Indifferent:
Although the expanded description explains that it is just two bedrooms and a bathroom without a living room or kitchen, the owners at one point call it a condo, and elsewhere describe it as an apartment. It is not a condo. It is not an apartment (both of which would have a living area and kitchen) it is a suite of rooms with a bathroom. I get very frustrated with owners who over-inflate their descriptions with words such as “condo” in them, to make it seem like more than it is. It is also not a shabby/chic near-the-beach cottage. Like everywhere in the middletown/newport area, you are reasonably close to a beach If you have a car. I mean anywhere fits that description of close to a beach, as long as you aren’t walking, so don’t be enticed by that description. You can’t walk anywhere from here. Also, the furnishings are just shabby, not chic. Most people know the difference. Think yard sale furniture that nobody else at the yard sale would buy because there is nothing charming about it. Don’t think beachy and rustic, with unique, quaint, or interesting qualities that took a ton of time and lots of savvy to pull together Into a creative and charming space with a boho feel. If you are dreaming that this is that, please just slap yourself now and look for something else.