Margo's Guest House — Hotel in San Diego

I recently stayed at Margo’s place in Dec.2022 for 2 nights. This review should have been published in AirBnb where I booked the trip, but I decided not to against Margo’s style as I understand AirBNB has all different kind of hosts. However, Margo leaves a very personal review to me at AirBNB and complains small and tiny issues. That bad behavior makes me feel I should describe my experience with Margo and provide insight to the public.

Margo has super strict check in time window and she only offers 1-hour window for check-in. I didn’t realize the strictness and I said I would probably arrive 6-7pm. We were on a road trip (which is difficult to keep time accurate). I realized I would arrive at 5:30pm (Google map ETA) at the day of arrival, so I texted Margo at 2:30pm that we would arrive at 5:30pm, instead of 6pm. She rejected the request rudely and said I should be responsible for my checkin time. She would not accommodate the request. Then I said okay and we waited for 30mins outside her house. Then her review said I was making unrealistic expectations on checkin time and not communicating well. Such a rude, unfair and bad host.

Again we were on road trip, the food and luggage were not well separated. When we firstly arrived, Margo give us a very bad look when we carried some fruits with our luggage. Well, her favorite opening is “as I said in house rule, balabala”. Margo does expect all guests to remember clearly about all her 3-pages long tiny rules, she really make me feel guilty as I don’t remember the tiny points. While she might claim that is guest responsibility to remember all the rules, I do not agree the host should make the guest uncomfortable and embarrassed. A friendly reminder is good enough. We removed all fruits back to my car upon her request. Then Margo’s review was rude again and complained I forgot her rules. I did felt like I was in jell management and got yelled at that moment (just joking).

Another minor point: Margo forces us to provide our hometown city on her global map (insert a tiny stick on the map). I understand it is for her advertisement, but I did feel obligated to do that when Margo just handed me the stick and watched me to insert it to the map. At the end of my stay, I figured Margo just like to ask for favors but is not returning favors or flexibility (of course this is my interpretation and very personal feeling).

Breakfast: Margo place provides breakfast on her listing. When I open the mini fridge, there is a whole milk bottle (a quart size) with very little milk in it. Then I texted Margo that whether she would replace it. Again, Margo replied “as listed clearly in house rule, her breakfast doesn’t not include milk, balabala” and the milk is leftover from other guests. I was okay and I thought I was casually asking as I saw a empty milk bottle. Her reviews complained about the unrealistic request for breakfast. I am like “what? I can’t even ask? How do I know the empty milk bottle was left over from other guest?”

Margo also complained that I was not communicating with her. I did agree I was trying to avoid her after the breakfast communication. I figured Margo is not an easy host and will not accommodate guest request and help. I do not want to give her a favor of advertisement either (I may be overthinking and she may not need another favor).

However, as long as the room is clean and safe I do not think her room is a bad place to stay at that time (if I do not get along with the host, I do not need to interact with the host, am I right?). Then Margo complained about my interaction with her, she doesn’t understand her behavior makes the guests uncomfortable.

Margo expects guests to remember all rules. Please evaluate yourself twice before booking. Margo really means it, you should remember all rules clearly.

I should have mentioned her room price is at the lower end within the neighborhood. This is the big reason I booked the room.

Feel free to explore Margo’s...

I’m writing this review to spread awareness to how horrible of a host Margo is, and the way she treats her guests is appalling. DO NOT STAY WITH MARGO, YOU WILL REGRET IT. I wouldn’t write such a long review if the treatment I received wasn’t horrendous. Margo replied below and claims that we aren't taking responsibility ? Margo explain to me how our experience is VERY SIMILAR to other guests but we are the ones who behaved poorly? Just thought, but keep reading to see how we "behaved badly" and make of it what you will.

When staying at Margo’s my travel partner and I had a feeling of unease with all the rules she has and her attitude. It seems like we were an inconvenience and a burden to her for paying her to stay at her airbnb. I didn’t leave her a horrible review because I thought it was just me. But the way she has treated me after staying at her house has been truly eye opening.

After leaving my review she proceeded to leave me a review detailing that “there was so much inconsideration of my home, house rules, other guests during their stay” and then she completely lied about what actually happened. This is what she said vs what ACTUALLY happened: "wet towels left on the shared bathroom floor" My mother and I were very diligent about cleaning up the bathroom after ourselves. Margo didn't say anything when we were there. If there were any towels left it wouldn't have been on purpose, but we didn’t leave anything because we knew this was a shared space. This is ridiculous to say we were "inconsiderate”. For our room we had 2 HOOKS mean while the other room had 4 HOOKS available. So because of this we had to hang most of the towels in our room which is fine but we were NEVER inconsiderate. And followed all of her checkout rules.

"to letting my dog outside and leaving her out there" This is a blatant lie, we NEVER let the dog outside and left her. One time she ran out the front door and I IMMEDIATELY messaged Margo that the dog had gone outside. And as we were leaving the property we heard Margo open the front door and call her dog inside. We even found her outside one of the mornings waiting to be let in. But we NEVER let her outside. Also Margo NEVER told us that if she got outside she should have been brought in which we would have done if she had told us to do so.

"not following house rules regarding the breakfast bar…" Margo NEVER spoke up about when we broke the house rules. She claims to love communication but never communicated with us, crazy double standard! Sorry you had literally 1000 rules and we couldn't remember them all.

" I was really looking forward to them leaving" You can't imagine the joy my mother and I felt when we left Margo's house. Her "house rules" made it feel like we were prisoners and her attitude was actually horrendous. And to blatantly lie about stuff that happened during our stay is CRAZY.

After detailing all the stuff she lied about, I requested a refund because the way she treated us was unacceptable. She stated:
-“I also received complaints from the other guests about the state the bathroom was left in.” NEVER once did she say anything about the “state of the bathroom” which is a lie because we NEVER left anything in the bathroom -“your message to me about letting the dog out and leaving her outside, verifies what I said was true. I wasn’t even home. I had to come back to let my dog back in as it is not safe for her to be left outside.” ANOTHER LIE because right after I messaged her about her dog running out we heard her call the dog back inside! There are other reviews to show that Margo is a genuinely horrible host and airbnb does nothing to reprimand such horrible...

My daughter and I had the worst experience with Margo. When we got to Margo’s I thought all of her rules were a bit much and the attitude she had while explaining all these rules was very off putting. During the stay everything was fine, all the shared spaces were fine and we were always considerate about cleaning up after ourselves. Margo told us when we got there that the kitchen is off limits (which is fine) and if we run out of water from the brita filter to leave it on the dining room table for her to refill. So I had left the brita out and a couple hours later it was still empty, but Margo was in the kitchen so she must of seen it empty and didn't fill it up. I get that you are not a maid but it was left out for hours and I didn't feel comfortable to fill up the brita from the bathroom sink, which she told us to do but that cannot be sanitary considering its next to the toiler. I have lung cancer and with that I have to take medication so I asked Margo if she could refill the brita and Margo replied with the worst attitude. And then she proceeds to complain about me "demanding things immediately when I was in the middle of a task”. I was NEVER demanding and to lie about is crazy.

After a day being out in San Diego, I would have a feeling of dread going back to Margo’s house, because any interaction with her was horrible and she always seemed bitter towards my daughter and I. 

NEVER ONCE did margo voice any of her “concerns” with us over message or in person, so to leave such a horrible review of us is cynical and bitter. In her list of 2000 rules she stated “-Give me the chance to fix any issues or problems. Communicate with me. I want to make it right. I've worked hard for my Superhost status. Not communicating with me about issues and then leaving a negative review is not kind.” When she never gave us a chance to fix any issues or problems is hypocritical.

If you think im exaggerating about the rules she has, her rules are over 12,000 characters long, over 2200 WORDS. Never in my life had I seen such long rules, there might be less rules in a prison than at Margo’s house.

“Growing up in a traditional Mexican household I was raised learning all about hospitality and strive to ensure each of my guests feels at home.” Let me tell you margo has ZERO HOSPITALITY and I NEVER felt at home and im mexican myself.

Margos mentions us being inconsiderate to the other guests. That when we were leaving her house to go to the airport my daughter had to help the other guest connect to the wifi because margo was MIA. We took time out of our day and were running late to the airport but my daugther was kind enough to help the other guest. So say what you will Margo about us being horrible inconsiderate guests but in reality you are a bitter horrible host. 

DO NOT STAY HERE PLEASE READ ALL THE REVIEWS SHE HAS AND KNOW THAT SHE WILL COMPLAIN ABOUT...