Though I gave 3/5 stars to Gabriella, she is anything but an "average" host. To briefly explain:

In many ways, Gabriella was a great host and her place wonderful: she went out of her way to make breakfast for guests, she is available to answer questions, the house is immaculate, the value is terrific, the location is great, and I enjoyed chatting with her about politics.

However, there were a few less desirable aspects of the stay I had never encountered before in my many years of using AirBNB and similar services, which were a tough adjustment for me.

Simply put, Gabriella has a fairly rigid set of beliefs on what is "common sense" and "expected" of her guests, and any violation of those rules (written and unwritten) were met with admonishment and discomfort.

A few examples:

- when I arrived and followed her instructions to go around to the backdoor, I said "hello?" through the open window and the dogs started barking. Gabriella's greeting to me was "well, that was the absolute worst thing you could have possibly done for the dogs."

- guests are expected to squeegee the shower after each use, to "help prevent mold"; personally, I did not mind this, but it was a bit unorthodox

- the WiFi password listed in the thick booklet that is provided to guests was incorrect; when I asked for Gabriella's help logging in because there appeared to be a problem with the password, she seemed impatient, telling me "no one has ever had a problem before." We talked through a few troubleshooting steps; each time, she left to return upstairs and said "call for me if you haven't figured it out." After 2-3 failed attempts at troubleshooting, I asked if I could see the modem, in case there was a different # for WEP or WPA. She said I could not, as she did not want me messing with it. Finally, when we checked her keychain on her mac and saw that she had left off the final number in the password, she offered an apology and said she doesn't like being wrong.

- I drink a ton of water, and so used the filtered water jug a few times. Gabriella told me to refill each cup I take out with the cup I use. I asked if I could use a pitcher, since it would take awhile to refill 3-4 cups using a cup at the time. I started to open up the cupboard in the kitchen (a shared space with guests) to get a larger container out to use and try to be helpful, but she abruptly closed it and told me that she didn't want guests going through her cupboard, and to just leave it for her to do.

Again, I am grateful for the many positive aspects of this stay, and enjoyed meeting Gabriella as a person. But with the rules and admonishments, it was personally a bit much for me on this trip.