Honestly, I don't know where to start.
This was the most disappointing AirBnB experience we have ever had, and has taught us that we will never stay at an AirBnB hosted by Vacasa again.
I'll start with the positives about this stay;
-Location was fantastic. Easy to walk to Pike's Place, the pier's, and directly above some great eateries (the bakery and pizza place were both fantastic)
-The bed was incredibly comfortable and plenty of good quality pillows
-Nothing to do with the listing but we were able to order Amazon grocery delivery to the building so we could make breakfast in the unit every morning rather than having to go out for every meal.
Here are the main negatives (there are lots more but would take too long to include everything);
-Pre-check in communication - AirBnB say in multiple places that all communication between guests and host should remain in the AirBnB chat. Vacasa sent emails to my personal email asking for additional personal information in order to do a background check. Initially these emails looked like phishing emails so I ignored them until a couple of days before check in when I reached out through the AirBnB chat and they confirmed that it was a real email. I provided the information they asked for via the AirBnB chat and they acknowledged receipt of the information. I later found out that this was not acceptable and should have been sent via email (against AirBnB policy).
Check in - Our flight came into Seattle at 9am. Check-in isn't until 4pm and there is not any ability for early check in. That's all perfectly fine but we were not given instruction for check in until noon the day of check in after multiple phone calls and back and forth communication via AirBnB chat which took up a good couple of hours of our time to explore the city. (note - under check-in on this listing it states that a door person will be there to help with check in. This is incorrect information. There is zero access to the building until check in) Finally, we were told that we would receive a text message from someone in the building to arrange them letting us into the building. Turns out there is someone who lives in the building who is paid by Vacasa to let guests in for check-in. He has the code to your door. I'm sure he's a nice guy and all, but this definitely made me uncomfortable, especially because once inside the unit there is no additional locks on the door.
The zero access to the building until check in also meant that we had to cart our bags around downtown Seattle from 9am until 4pm. It would have been nice for them to suggest or provide information on where you could 'park your bags' if you arrive early. Since they don't I will provide the two that we used - Chihuly Glass Museum has a free bag/coat check for anyone with tickets. We checked our bags there on our first day and explored both the museum and surrounding area before grabbing our bags before walking back to the unit when we could finally check in. On our last day our flight wasn't until 6pm so we did some work at the coffee shop (we both work remotely so needed a place with internet) and then was able to check our bags in at the Bill Speidel's Underground Tour while we took the tour (highly recommend).
The unit itself - they did a fantastic job with photographs of this listing to make it look high end, modern and updated. Unfortunately the reality is it's run down, well worn, and in need of a good facelift. The keypad on the door to let you in in the first place is not installed correctly and super skewed, not to mention that the door itself barely fits the door frame so could easily be bashed in without much effort. The sliding door to the balcony doesn't even have the ability to lock - not that I thought someone was going to Spiderman up the building to steal from us but it just doesn't exactly feel reassuring. There is paint scuffed off of virtually every surface. The closet light might as well not even be there as it lets off about as much light as a nightlight. The toilet seat is broken (something I see has been brought up multiple times in previous reviews) so every time you sit on it the whole seat slips to one side. There was about a quarter of a roll of toilet paper left and no backups in the toilet roll holder next to the toilet. Fortunately I found another roll in the back under the sink but when you have people staying for 5 days you'd think they'd make sure there's plenty of toilet paper obviously available.
Check out - Check out is at 10am which is the earliest check out I've ever experienced. However this is clearly stated so it was expected. I had previously asked if there was a possibility of late checkout and was told no. However, I woke up on the morning of our departure with a horrific migraine and reached out asking if due to the circumstances (I am also 6 months pregnant) we could have an additional hour or so to be able to recover. I was again told no due to the fact that there was another reservation coming in that day so the cleaning crew needed to come in. There is absolutely no way it takes 6 hours to clean this unit (10am-4pm) as I know they aren't allowing anyone do early check-in. The lack of flexibility is just ridiculous.
Again - I could continue to go on with the negatives but will leave it at that.