4/10 Poor
Vanessa M.
6 March 2023
Liked: Check-in, communication
Disliked: Cleanliness, location
Could not overcome the smell to stay for two nights
Owner was very responsive and apologetic for previous tenant's choices. We had rented the home for two nights - flew into Oakland and had a birthday party to attend in Union City. Perfect half way point. One way to the house drove us threw a sketchy part of town, driving in the other way was ok. Neighborhood was quiet, but we did get all of our errands run so we didn't have to leave at night.
When we arrived at the house there were several windows open as well as the door to the garage into the house. . There were a couple of plugs in that I removed from the wall as I am very sensitive to those. Immediately after the windows were closed and the plug ins removed there was a combination of Marijuana and musty smoke smell. After reading the house rules I was concerned we were going to be penalized $1,110+ for the smell so I emailed the owner who made us aware of the previous tenants choices. There were 4 adults staying in the house, we sat in the kitchen with the windows open and played cards and the smell seemed manageable. We closed the windows when we went to bed. I was sleeping in the room with the twin mattresses with my sister. The bedding smelled like it had been drowned in febreeze. I woke up several times throughout the night mid dry heave because the smell was so overwhelming. My brother had to sleep sideways on his queen bed because of the tilt it had. My aunt stayed in the room with the bathroom attached and thought it was odd there was no way to adjust the temp to the water without being drenched because of the way the door opens.
The kitchen was nicely upgraded as was the bathroom in the hallway.
The smell was so bad in the house we changed our flights from Oakland to Sacramento and returned our Turo car a day early and drove up to Roseville to stay with family. Technically the owner didn't have to refund us for the second night because we didn't check out until mid afternoon but he did provide a partial refund without being asked. This was a nice balm as I was personally upset we were not given a heads up about the smell and given the opportunity to make other arrangements to begin with.
Had it not been for the smell we would have dealt with the other minor inconveniences. While the house was worn and out dated in some places the upgrades that had been done were really nice.
Vanessa M.
Stayed 2 nights in Mar 2023
