Parents' Trip to the U.S. - Accommodation Issues
This content was automatically generated by gpt-4o-mini (No human review). The original post is in Chinese.
The accommodation issue has been the most headache-inducing problem for me, whether it’s commuting to work in San Diego or working in the Bay Area for three months during the summer. The accommodation problem always puts a lot of pressure on me. To briefly introduce our current situation, Cuihao and I are currently living in the UCI graduate student apartments because Cuihao has not yet graduated from his PhD program. The graduate student apartments are much cheaper than external housing options. Although our apartment is a 2B1B, it is particularly small, only 626 sqft (less than 60 square meters), and it feels a bit cramped for two people and a cat (mainly because we have too much stuff). However, the rent is affordable, under $1500 a month, including utilities and internet. My current work office is in San Diego, and I need to go in three days a week, so I drive to San Diego every week to stay for two nights (at a friend’s house or Airbnb). Otherwise, I would have to commute over three hours every day (which is too painful for me to accept). In short, my own work commute and housing situation is not ideal, but fortunately, I can work from home for four weeks each year, which I can use while my parents are in the U.S.
Ideal Housing Conditions
So, for my parents and younger brother’s accommodation issue during their visit to the U.S., our first consideration was to rent a place outside, completely ruling out the idea of them squeezing into our small apartment. After all, they plan to stay for two months, from December 20, 2023, to February 20, 2024. Why such a long stay? Because we haven’t spent the New Year together for four years due to COVID, and the Spring Festival in 2024 is particularly late (February 10). We want to celebrate the Spring Festival together in the U.S. before they return to China. Since I usually have limited vacation time, I have 11 days off during Christmas and New Year, which allows me to spend time with them. Therefore, we hope they can come to the U.S. before the Christmas holiday so we can all go on a road trip together during the break.
In addition to the long duration, they also need a larger living space for three people, and my brother is only 6-7 years old and quite noisy, so living together would make it difficult to work and sleep properly. Given that there are more people and a small child, it’s basically impossible to share with others, so we can only consider renting an entire place. I started looking for housing at the end of September last year, and after one or two months, I still hadn’t found a suitable short-term rental.
Since Cuihao and I only have one car, and after my parents and brother arrive, there will be five of us with just one car, the rented house needs to be close to the school (within 5 kilometers), preferably within walking distance. We also need to rent the entire place for one and a half to two months, ideally furnished, with a total budget of around $6000. The best scenario would be to sublet a campus student apartment, but their visit is from late December to late February, not during the summer, so there are fewer campus housing sublets available. If there are any, most of them are only renting out one room, not the entire place. Off-campus options are generally too far away or too expensive. In short, after considering everything, the final conclusion is that we can only book an Airbnb.
Encountered a Scam Listing
At first, we booked an Airbnb that was very close to our home and reasonably priced, costing less than $4000 for a month and a half. However, the host never responded to my messages or accepted my request.
Later, I found another listing with an excellent price: $5000 for a month and a half, a 2b1b, and it was not too far away, just a 10-minute drive, located in an Irvine Company apartment community. It turned out to be a scam listing, but fortunately, we got our money back. When we booked this place, the host accepted our reservation, and we paid the first month’s rent (around $3600). The booking was fully refundable if canceled before December. After securing the place, we felt uneasy, so we went to check the address listed on Airbnb over the weekend. We circled the property for a while and noticed that the actual exterior and layout did not match the photos on Airbnb. The pictures on Airbnb seemed to be from a neighboring unit, meaning the address and photos did not align.
So, we waited for the leasing office to open and went in to ask a few questions. We first inquired whether the community allowed tenants to do Airbnb. The response was that the community prohibited Airbnb rentals. The staff then asked us which unit was doing Airbnb, and after hesitating, we shared the information we had gathered. The staff said they already had a record of that unit; not only was the address incorrect, but the tenant had not paid any rent since moving in several months ago, and previous Airbnb guests had reported issues. They informed us that the unit was currently in the eviction process, and the police could arrive at any time to lock the place up and evict the tenant. We were shocked and frightened to hear this; while we had suspected that the community might not allow Airbnb, we never imagined the situation could be this dire.
So, we quickly canceled the booking on Airbnb and successfully got a full refund. Then we reported the scam listing through multiple channels on the Airbnb platform. In the end, we even received a $100 voucher as a reward from Airbnb. Thankfully, we did not incur any losses, but we wasted a lot of time and ended up back at square one: continuing the search for a new place.
Encountering the Landlord Selling the House
After the scam listing we encountered earlier, we were quite shaken and didn’t dare to seek out cheap options anymore. So we immediately booked a more expensive and better-condition house from our previous alternatives, costing $4500 for one month and $6700 for a month and a half. However, this house could not be canceled for free after 48 hours (after that, the rent for the 30 days prior to cancellation would not be refunded). To explain why we only rented for a month and a half, we planned to go on a road trip for 7-8 days during Christmas and New Year, leaving the Airbnb empty during that time, which felt like wasting money. We decided to let my parents and younger brother stay in our small apartment for the remaining 4-5 days from 12/20 to 1/1, while we were traveling. Since we wouldn’t need to work much during that time, we could sleep in the study on the floor and try to take them out as much as possible to avoid staying at home, saving about $2000 in rent.
The Airbnb we finally booked was really great; it was a single-family house, only one story, with a garage and a backyard (Lot area 2,958 sqft, 270 square meters). The house had 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, with a particularly large master bedroom, a spacious living room, and a big kitchen, with four sofas. The photos online looked really good, and we took a stroll around the neighborhood outside the community; it was quiet, clean, and had good public facilities. We even chatted with the neighbor next door. We arranged to meet the landlord and coordinated with the current tenants to visit the house. The condition was basically consistent with the photos, and it seemed like a reliable listing. This house was about 5-6 kilometers from our home; walking was not feasible, but it took about 10 minutes by car, 20 minutes by bike, and 40 minutes running. Overall, we were very satisfied with this house; it was much better than our current small and shabby apartment. I would be happy to live there myself, and if I could afford it, I would be willing to buy it; I could say it was my dream house. The only downside was that it was too expensive; $6700 was not a small amount. What if my parents had an unexpected situation and couldn’t come? There would be no refund. So I also bought Airbnb travel insurance for $400, which would cover accommodation costs in case of emergencies, as well as medical expenses, flight delays, etc. (I will discuss insurance issues in a later blog).
Unexpectedly, less than a week after we moved into this Airbnb, the Airbnb Host contacted me to say that the landlord wanted to sell the house. There were several buyers interested in viewing the house in the next couple of days, and they hoped we could cooperate, offering us a rent discount. I checked the Redfin website, and the house had been listed for less than 24 hours, already having appointments scheduled, indicating that it was very popular. Moreover, this house was listed for just over $1 million, making it the cheapest option among similar listings in the area, so it would likely sell quickly. However, the Host repeatedly assured me not to worry; she said selling a house takes over a month, and she guaranteed that I could stay until the originally planned date. We agreed on a $500 viewing subsidy, with the condition that they would communicate with us before each viewing and schedule it at our convenience. As a result, for the first viewing, three groups of people came, and two days later, one of the buyers made an offer, and the house was sold. Then the Host contacted us again regarding the home inspection and home appraisal visits, scheduling times for us to cooperate with the viewings. Later, the home inspection revealed many issues, and they started contacting workers to come fix things, like installing a carbon monoxide detector and checking a few other items. For all these appointments, except for the first viewing when Cuihao was present, my parents and younger brother were at home while we were at work. Later, there were two instances where workers showed up without any communication or notice; one time they were painting outside, parking directly in our driveway, and another time they even entered the house to fix plumbing in the backyard. I was very dissatisfied with this, took photos as evidence, and immediately contacted the Airbnb Host to express my concerns, sending her the photos. She also agreed that this was excessive, stating that the landlord had not communicated with her, and she was unaware. In the end, she agreed to help me negotiate for more refund compensation.
On the other hand, after we started working, just two days after my parents moved into the Airbnb, my dad began complaining that living in the U.S. was too boring. He didn’t have a car and couldn’t do various things, even considering returning to China early. So we discussed the option of returning early, and combined with the landlord’s intention to sell the house, we ended up moving our return tickets up by a full 20 days. Fortunately, after repeated communication with the Airbnb Host and many discussions with the Airbnb platform, we only had to pay for three extra days of rent, and the rest of the money was refunded. In the end, our Airbnb rental expenses were only about half of the initial amount ($3300, excluding insurance). Looking at it this way, the landlord selling the house turned out to be a good thing for us, a blessing in disguise.
Note 1: A headache we encountered while communicating with the Airbnb platform: the city of Irvine has regulations that require a minimum rental period of 30 days for Airbnb, so we couldn’t change this booking to less than 30 days, even if the Airbnb host agreed.
Note 2: The Airbnb landlord (owner) and Host are two different people; the Host is just the person managing it, and she has been quite communicative. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have been able to get back so much money.
Experience of Staying in a Cramped Apartment
Originally, we only planned to squeeze into our small apartment for 4-5 days, but we ended up staying for a full nine days. The reason was that my dad really wasn’t used to road trips, and for the first few days, he had no cigarettes or alcohol, and the food on the road didn’t suit him. He kept complaining, so in the end, everyone decided to head home early, leaving me and Cuihao to sleep on the floor every day.
Speaking of sleeping on the floor, the experience was actually not bad. Every night we took out the camping mats, laid them out with sheets, and then brought out pillows and blankets, so we could sleep comfortably. In the morning, we packed everything away to create some space to move around. My parents and younger brother slept in our bedroom, which has two beds; my mom and brother shared a full-size bed, while my dad slept in a twin-size bed.
Having five people crammed together, the first major inconvenience was that there was only one bathroom, which meant we had to wait in line. The second issue was that the soundproofing in the house was terrible; if our schedules didn’t align, it was easy to be woken up early by noise. Plus, there was no way to maintain distance; aside from the eight hours of sleep, the rest of the time offered no personal space, and I was constantly with family, unable to relax.
Not only could we not relax, but our food-loving cat also became less interested in eating. It was mainly because there were too many people and too much noise, and one child was particularly excited around the cat. During that time, our cat would hide in a cardboard box in the study, feeling depressed and not coming out much. She showed little interest in food, unlike before when she would rush out to eat as soon as the feeder made a sound. It wasn’t until everyone was asleep at night that she would come back to the living room.
Later, when my parents moved to an Airbnb, the experience improved significantly (the cat also recovered). From Monday to Friday, we worked and lived in our small apartment during the day, then went to my parents’ place around 5 PM for dinner. After dinner, we played games and chatted, and returned to our apartment around 8-9 PM. On weekends, we would go over in the morning to spend the day with them and come back early after dinner. Suddenly, our personal space and time increased a lot, making things much easier. The Airbnb space we finally booked was completely sufficient for five people, but we never stayed there even for a day. I felt that the money spent on the Airbnb was well worth it; in fact, I think we should have moved them into the Airbnb sooner, as there was no need to squeeze into our small apartment.
Therefore, I believe that even if we buy our own house in the future, even if we have a larger space, if my parents come to visit again, we should still consider letting them stay in an Airbnb. After all, the accommodation experience greatly affects the quality of life, and the most important thing for two generations to get along is to maintain distance and give each other enough space. This is money well spent.
