The host put significant pressure on me to score her a 5 so that she could keep her Superhost rating. But this rental is NOT a 5. If the rate had been under $200 a night, I'd be giving it a 4. But with a rate of over $300/night (once all the taxes and fees are factored in: buyer beware), this is a poor value.
Pros:
--beds were comfortable (if hot—memory foam, but also the weather).
--Interior was clean.
--easy street parking
--Kitchen had high-quality pots and pans, good chef's knives, and more tupperware than anyone could use in a week... but see below for the rest.
Cons:
--A/C poorly installed with many air leaks, leading to wasting energy and insufficient cooling. This only matters when it's hot, as it was during our stay, but still.
--Despite some good items, the kitchen overall was very poorly equipped. There were only 2 of us, and we barely had enough cutlery, plates, and glasses for 2 meals (not even if you're actually cooking something rather than getting takeout). So the choice was either to handwash, or to run the dishwasher half-empty (wasting energy and water). In terms of other equipment: there's a terrible peeler, a tiny low-quality grater, a corkscrew, a spatula, and 3 mixing bowls. That's it.
--Outside back porch was filthy.
--curtains didn't fit the windows, didn't block light. This matters for sleeping and for reducing heat gain in the summer. This made the living room in particular unpleasantly hot (no AC there).
--COMMUNICATION. Lots of messages from Delanie - though some clearly were from her bot. When I told her the disposal had stopped working, crickets. An hour later (8pm by this point), there was a knock on the door: someone came to fix the disposal. No warning or anything. When I told her it would have been good to get a warning, she claimed the system glitched. Hard to believe. Plus, the fix was something I could've done myself if she'd simply told me how, which leads to:
--Hard to believe that Delanie herself has been inside the apartment anytime recently, as she doesn't seem to know what's in the apartment. For example, she sternly messaged that there would only be one towel pp, but then when we arrived we found dozens of towels in the bathroom. Good, right? Except for the part where she intrudes out of the blue to ask if I need more towels, which in retrospect I see as her effort to be a Superhost, when in fact she's has little clue about what's going on and instead seems to subcontract out to an agency. Many of her messages seemed generated by a bot - or at least a list of possible options (from which she picks the wrong ones). This is NOT the personal touch, and Delanie has NOT earned a Superhost rating.
--Incomplete housekeeping (dryer still had a mass of towels, cupboards were a disorganized mess).
When hosts are sincerely trying to offer personal service and the apartment is a reasonable value for money, I often leave 5s and share my suggestions or comments privately. Sometimes when I'm not thrilled but I feel it wasn't really the host's fault, I don't review. But when a host begs for a 5 at both the beginning and the end of the say, and she hasn't even addressed still hasn't addressed public feedback left by others (e.g., missing shower plate around the faucet, window coverings), then I feel my main responsibility is to warn future potential guests.