We were in California for a family member's major surgery. We knew we would be there a while (three and a half weeks, in the end), so we needed something close to Stanford, economically priced, and able to house five people--this property fit all three of those needs.
The good: Marbella was very responsive and answered messages very quickly. This was especially important for us, as we needed to extend our stay twice (fortunately the house wasn't rented for those extra days). The wifi worked very well, never had any issues with it--my husband worked remotely while we were there and we had a teenager also doing school remotely. The property is close to the hospitals, as well as grocery and other stores. We saw several restaurants fairly close to the house also.
The description mentions seasonal bugs--we never saw any. We saw 2-3 non-seasonal bugs in the first couple days of our stay, but apparently we scared them off. There was no sign of anything but us staying there for the rest of our stay.
Things to consider: There is no central heating/AC. Each of the three bedrooms has a very efficient inverter unit. These work great for the bedrooms and rooms nearby (especially if the doors are kept open), but some of the rooms (the TV room at the back of the house and one of the bathrooms) get pretty chilly in November/December, especially with their tile floors.
The kitchen is a bit understocked in some ways for a house that can accommodate that many people. There are plenty of mugs, plates, and cereal/soup bowls. Silverware and other utensils were fairly adequate. We ended up buying one serving/mixing/popcorn bowl, a colander, and some measuring cups, which were necessary as we needed to eat in most of the time. We left those items there (no room to fly them home).
The house of course has low flow water--totally not an issue in the bathrooms, but it takes a while to fill a pan with the trickle from the kitchen faucet.
The washer and dryer are in the garage which is only accessible by going outside. They are high quality and it really didn't bother us to get a little sunshine on the way out to switch a load. That area is enclosed in a locked and secure backyard. While it is also shared with the other house on the property, we never had any conflicting wash times, although I'm sure we used it much more than the other renters did.
All in all, this house worked for what we needed. Marbella was great to work with.
