I booked this trip with my partner for a birthday weekend. The entire reason we chose this place was to have a private getaway that was still relatively close to home, but in the beautiful Los Gatos area. I was exclusively looking at places with hot tubs, and refused to book anything that didn’t have one.
When we arrived we followed the detailed instructions to our “cottage”. We found the place was very tidy and recently cleaned. No complaints with the cleanliness at all. The kitchen was also stocked with the basics needed to cook our dinner and breakfasts. However, after we checked in and were getting our bearings, Michelle let us know that the previous guest had left with their only key. I am SUPER big on safety and try to always be as cautious as possible so this made me extremely uncomfortable, regardless of the amount of cameras that existed on the property. In the same message from Michelle notifying us of the missing key, she also let us know that there were other guests in the main house, and to let her know when we would like to use the hot tub so we could have our “privacy”. After letting Michelle know we would like to use the hot tub, we found that the guests in the main house had the back door and windows open, so they could easily view us while using the hot tub. Throughout the maybe 30-45 min that we stayed in the hot tub, atleast 3 people walked outside the back door. At no point in the listing does it say we would 1)have to schedule time to use the hot tub 2)share this space with anyone except Michelle who I assumed lived on site. At the time of our visit we encountered a man in the backyard who explained he was house sitting for the owners. This was never explained to us, and being the safety nut that I am, this again made me extremely uncomfortable.
I am also a local to the San Jose area (born & raised but recently moved south), and this area is NOT Los Gatos. I would say it is closer to Campbell than Los Gatos. I was shocked to see how inaccurate the location was as were arriving, as one of my siblings went to the high school that was right down the street. While it is a good location for San Jose, it is ridiculous to classify this as Los Gatos.
The listing for this airbnb was truly not accurate, and at no point was I as comfortable as I should have been. I also stepped in dog poop on their lawn while walking up the hot tub. I know not everything is within the control of the owner, and that life and mistakes happen, but there was such a lack of communication and honesty in the listing. While I appreciate how they remodeled the cottage, I would never book here again. I would’ve never even booked this in the first place if the post was honest about the hot tub not being private, and sharing the backyard space with other guests.