We were very unhappy with this rental, for many reasons. The house was clean and seemed like a decent neighborhood, but the devil is in the details.
1. We booked the house at a rate of $187 per night, but the final bill was over $300 per night. As first-time AirBnB users, we were surprised in the worst way. For that rate, we would have stayed in any hotel.
2. The location was right up against Aurora Ave and incredibly noisy, with high speed motorcycles, trucks with Jake-brakes, and drag racing all afternoon and all night less than 50 feet from the bedroom window. We weren't familiar with the area so couldn't tell the noise level before booking, plus the address was obscured until after we requested the booking. This seemed very shady.
3. The house was unbelievably hot, and has no AC. Realizing that this was more or less disclosed in the listing, and there was a heat wave in Seattle, still we couldn't get comfortable to sleep. We couldn't even open windows at night due to the road noise.
4. Why were we given a phone number (that didn't connect), and messages back came from 5 different people? This doesn't seem like the house is managed by an individual family, although that is how it is promoted. Again, shady.
5. We couldn't reach anyone at the moment when we REALLY needed it (to unlock the door while our kid had to pee). One of the contacts said via messaging that AirBnB insists on all messaging to go through their platform, but for VRBO we have had the homeowner contact us directly via phone with no issues.
6. Right across Aurora Avenue is Woodland Park, with a significant encampment of homeless. We didn't feel safe leaving windows open at all during our stay, especially at night. We also didn't feel comfortable sleeping with the provided earplugs.
I wouldn't rent this house again, and am struggling even to give AirBnB a second chance after this experience.