The positives were a very responsive management company, close proximity to the Sunday market, comfortable beds, and spacious kitchen. This was one of our most expensive and disappointing of many VRBO stays though. The unit isn’t quite ready for vacation stays. You can tell it was an old office space, and aside from the updated kitchen, it feels very much like staying in an office. The bedroom and bathroom doors are all heavy fire doors, but the open ceilings don’t provide any noise barriers between bedrooms, so you can hear even quiet conversations between bedrooms. On the weekend, there was loud music from the bar across the street until 2AM, and we could make out actual conversations from the gallery below until late at night. The bathrooms haven’t been updated from their commercial use, and there are no towel bars. The kitchen is updated and nice, but it’s missing a lot of cooking utensils that are common in most rentals. We wanted to stay in Ballard, but this particular location wasn’t picturesque and the area didn’t feel safe. My teenager and I rented scooters to see the area, but had to abandon the idea really quickly after we got into terrible traffic and a bad area just two blocks away. Parking was also a nightmare. The street right outside is always full and had some campers parked permanently outside, and all the nearby lots are paid but without come and go privileges. We would have been much better off staying in a hotel.
