Hotel review: Luxury Vacation Rental, Colonial Street, St. John's, NL

We stayed in a huge vacation rental in St. John's for three nights over the thanksgiving weekend. We used Airbnb to book it. We were looking for something with four full bedrooms with double beds and more than two bathrooms. We also wanted to be right downtown. This place was it. 

(this was the third-largest bedroom) 

 (The master bedroom)

(a view of the living room on the main floor)

Price: $350 plus tax per night. This was the off-season rate.

Bathroom: Three full bathrooms and one half bath off the kitchen. All good. 

Pool: No, but the master bathroom did have a huge whirlpool we didn't use. 

Breakfast: No, but there is a huge kitchen. 

Wifi: Apparently there is wifi, but it was so spotty, and you pretty much had to be sitting on top of the modem to use it. Not cool. 

TV: The host claimed they had cable, but we couldn't get it to work. We called a few times to try to get them to fix it, but they said they couldn't help. 

Location: So great. It was a two minute walk to all the cute shops and coffee shops downtown. The location was the best part of the whole thing. 

Parking: There was a permit for one vehicle to park on the street. We never had a problem finding parking. We had a second vehicle that Jon had to park a few blocks away, which was no big deal for us. 

Notes: I'll start with the negatives: The host doesn't live in the province, so there is no one to welcome you or to come help you get the tv to work. In all my communication with him (all over email), I found him pretty...rude. There were a million rules. The weirdest one is you have to strip the beds and do all the laundry before you leave. For real, I have never, ever heard of doing that. We spent the whole morning before we left cleaning, which was a bummer. Also, there were mice. It's a really old house, so maybe mice are inevitable. I didn't bother me as much as maybe it should have. Also, the furniture. There is no place really to hang out and lounge. There are a couple old loveseats in the hallway between the kitchen and the living room that a few of us could sit on (behind Jon in the picture above), but there was nowhere we could all sit together really. Also, the gas stove. Maybe some people love them, but I found that thing unwieldy. I would try to turn it on a bit, and I would get a huge flame a foot high. OK, the positives: The shower in the master bedroom is amazing. It sprays steam, so you can hardly see in front of you. Amazing. Also, the place was huge. We all felt like we had plenty of room, and no one ever felt crowded. Also, they have a ton of puzzles and board games, which we liked. 

Bottom line: For the price, I found it decent. Way better than booking four hotel rooms. I probably would never stay there again, but only because I found the host not fun to deal with. But if you are four couples with or without kids, this place is awesome.