We had an okay stay. Overall nothing wrong, and there are pros and cons to the place, so just make sure it fits your needs.
The Pros
- Power West is amazing. Their communication is instant - they are there if you need anything before, during or after. They are always courteous and responsive
- The location is awesome. It really is a 10 in walk to Rio Del Mar and the neighborhood is safe, and gives you the beach vibe
- The entry to the home is fantastic. So many benches to sit on, and the landscaping is great. From the second you drive in you feel like you are headed on a vacation
- Lots of seating so plenty of room for family members to gather
- One thing they should put in the pictures is the cool swing they have in the backyard. Our kids loved it! That was probably the highlight of our visit as simple as it is
- The fireplace in the family room is lovely. We used that a couple of times for family game afternoons
The Cons
- The furniture looks much nicer in the picture than it is - the living room sofa is ripped in many places. The outdoor patio furniture was quite dirty to the point we did not feel comfortable using it much. The pizza oven was black and covered with soot
- The place is very very very basic. The second you enter you can feel how minimalistic everything is. Two hangers in the closet, old mismatched pots/pans, outdated furniture for the most part, only soap in the bathrooms, no other amenities. They certainly are not required to provide this, but for the price we paid, I would have expected the inside to have a more upscale feel vs. a motel feel. If we paid $200/nt I would have been fine with it, but at almost $500/nt it did not meet our bar
- We had an issue with the sofas where our kids started sneezing anytime they sat on them. The sofas were clean on the surface but clearly something was irritating our kids, and it got bad enough to the point where we left one night early
- Kitchen overall was not cleaned appropriately. It was clean on the surface but when you look in the drawers you can tell it really had not been cleaned thoroughly in some time. We ended up hand washing everything before using but during COVID we definitely were not very comfortable with the level of cleanliness in the kitchen
- Lastly, if you have little kids be careful about the stairs here. They are wood stairs and we had a few scares where our kids almost tumbled. I would highly recommend the hosts add some grips to the stairs to make them safer
Overall
- The location is fantastic, if you are coming for the beach, you will enjoy it
- If you are coming to spend a lot of time in the house you will probably be disappointed given how minimalistic it is
- Given our experience, I had requested a partial refund from the host given we had to leave one day early, they refused to give a refund. It's neither here or there, but worth knowing their stance in the event you have issues. Again, I don't think there was anything fundamentally wrong, but if your guest is disappointed and leaves early one would hope the host would want to accommodate to some degree