Affordable 3/2 on Beautiful Bayside Street in Mission Beach

Amazing location, but less than perfect stay

KATraveler (California)
Review submitted: September 20, 2012   Date of arrival: July 13, 2012

The location of the house is amazing. You have the bay one block away and the beach is about 3 blocks in the other direction. You can even view the fireworks at Sea World from the deck. The rooms are fairly good sized and there is parking, which is so nice since it's hard to find parking on the street. As an added bonus, it's also so close to the major SD sites.

Now for the downside: upon arrival, the place clearly had not been cleaned. The towels, floor, bathroom (sand in the tub, sink and counters dirty) and kitchen (counters had food on them) were all dirty. Our friends arrived prior to us, and they spent a few hours of their vacation cleaning the place to make it usable. When we contacted the owner, she was very nice and said she would get the cleaners back right away, but they never arrived and despite multiple attempts to contact her again, we never heard back from the owner during our stay, which was so disappointing. The place needs a few repairs as well, such as a leaky bathroom sink and the backdoor doesn't close (or lock)--hopefully the owner got these fixed. The pillows are old and stained (kind of gross), the "rustic" floor is, well let's say interesting, and the rugs were really dirty and since I had a baby with us, I didn't feel comforable putting her on the floor. Unfortunately there are no beach supplies, such as towels, toys, ice chests, etc., nor are there any toiletries, such as shampoo and soap (there is hand, dish, and laundry soap though) so be prepared to pack a lot! Although it didn't bother us, if you're a light sleeper, you will hear airplanes through the night, so beware. It's a bit inconvenient to carry all of your stuff upstairs since you either use the very narrow, steep spiral staircase where you car is located, or walk it all to the front of the house to use the other staircase.

I wish I could say that these were the only issues, but we were also overcharged for our stay and it took a month to get a credit, due to lack of response by the owner. We still had to pay the cleaning fee despite spending our time cleaning the place on arrival--oh and when you leave, you are expected to sweep the floors, strip the beds, and clean the kitchen, so we spent about an hour cleaning when we left too.

We enjoyed the time we had in San Diego, but would definitely choose another place to stay in the future. However, if all you care about is location, then this place might work for you!

Recommended for: families with teenagers, girls getaway, pet-friendly, sight seeing

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