The location of this Airbnb is really awesome! We loved being able to walk to so much of what we wanted to do in the city. We had delicious brunch and coffee within a couple of blocks and we could easily walk to other things we wanted to explore. Besides location, we were disappointed in this apartment.
The most important thing for prospective airbnb-ers to know is that these photos are NOTHING like the place. I know the description mentions a few changes, but honestly it’s unrecognizable to the point of feeling deceptive. If Peter just put current photos up, people would know what to expect, but this just left us feeling put off from the start. It basically feels like a college crash pad, where the style is a little thrown together and all the furniture is from yard sales or free on craigslist (or “DIY”, like the entertainment center/shelving “crafted” from concrete blocks and woodboards). The living room has a futon (decently comfortable as futons go) and a chair that isn’t something you can relax in (think dentist waiting room). The dining room table is a rickety fold-out.
The other key thing to note, and related to the inaccuracy of the pics, is that it’s not clean. I know Peter will respond to say we could have called to have his “cleaning team” show up, but there are several reasons why we didn’t. #1 It’s our vacation and we wanted to relax and have a space to ourselves. Having strangers come into the space and then having to tell them to do things for us is stressful and hard to ask for. We were particularly concerned about dust being noticeable throughout the apartment, the bathtub needing to be cleaned before we felt comfortable using it, and a smell coming from the garbage disposal that got increasingly worse as our stay went on
#2 The things that are wrong are like, big-picture long-term stuff. One hinge on the toilet seat was broken. There were cobwebs in the corners. There is a 2-foot diameter circle of toothpaste spray on the walls and mirror around the bathroom sink. The bedroom smelled like my brother’s room in high school. The walls have multiple large holes and big marks on every wall. What are we going to say, send someone to spackle this so we don’t have to look at it?
It’s too much to expect your renters to make these lists for you… it’s all very obvious stuff that has clearly been building up for a while, so we just assumed if it wasn’t clean, this host wasn’t really concerned about it.
Besides location, the other PROS are
--nice snacks and copious water bottles
--so much of what you might need- cleaning supplies, toiletries, etc
-- lots of outlets
--the stuff that needs cleaning is more big-picture…except for some hair in the second bedroom, all the everyday level stuff like the sinks and toilet and kitchen counters were fine.
--awesome TV and sound system
--ductless heat units worked great, got toasty (assuming aircon from same unit would be just as good)