My wife and I stayed at Steve’s place for 5 nights. Here are the honest pros and cons:
Pros:
- the location was really convenient. Tons of bars, restaurants, grocery stores, etc. just a few minutes away. The neighborhood is very nice and the proximity to the rose garden was fantastic, we went there several times by foot with our toddler.
- Steve is very responsive and friendly. He gave us a call to clarify the check-in process and was available to answer any questions. He offered us to store some of our luggage on the last day, which was very nice of him.
- the place itself is very spacious, so there’s comfort in the living and dining areas for a few people.
- there’s plenty of parking available around the place.
Cons:
I’ll preface this by saying that we were in Portland during the crazy heat wave that took place where we had 3 out of the 6 days with temperatures that reached triple digits, with a day reaching 113 F.
- the house is very, very old. It smells like it’s old and you’ll realize that as soon as you walk in. Some people don’t mind, but it’s worth pointing out.
- the A/C situation is really not great. The whole house only has 3 units; 2 old window units in the main floor and one portable unit upstairs. When the temperature reaches 90 degrees, the only place in the whole house with decent temperature was the main floor’s bedroom. That room got to ~70 degrees at night. That was the best we could get out of it. The rest of the main floor was very warm, there’s no A/C in the living room nor dining area, so the average temperature in those areas was 82 degrees or so, even with the blinds closed the whole day.
The floor upstairs was simply unbearable due to the temperature. Even having the portable A/C at full blast upstairs the room would be close to 90 degrees during the day. The bathroom upstairs was essentially a sauna. During hot days this house turned into a one bedroom apartment.
I bring all of this up because we also traveled with a toddler, which made everything more difficult. That said, if you’re traveling during a high temperature (>90) season, expect to only be able to sleep in one small room and be able to use only one bathroom, with limited amount of time spent in other areas of the house.
- the laundry units are nice but they are in a very dark and dirty basement upstairs that isn’t very inviting.
That’s pretty much it. I think that the experience in this place could be much better in cooler days, but we had to share a more comprehensive review as we felt that the short reviews with 5 stars are not painting the full picture.