We booked a trip to visit family at the last minute, so many of the other STR properties we’ve stayed at in town were already booked. We happened upon this cottage for a reasonable price and decided to give it a shot. It’s just fine, but nothing exceptional. Basically a hotel room in a private backyard. We never saw our hosts, but did see and hear their dogs, which was fine except when then let them out into the shared yard early in the morning, which led our dog to wake us at 6am barking at the dogs just outside. Also - be careful where you step in the backyard, as I ran across some dried dog poop.
We knew the cottage was in a private backyard, but it was our first time trying out such a rental. It was definitely a bit weird walking into someone’s backyard to spend the night. I always felt like I was being watched from the windows as we came and went, but I don’t know if they did that or not. The room itself is just fine, but again - not much more than a hotel room offers. There was a small fridge, microwave and coffee pot, but no cooktop or any other way to cook meals. The AC worked after a while, but it took a day for us to figure out the pictographs on the remote control. We never could get the light to work on the ceiling fan. The Wi-Fi gave us about 20mbps tops. Several of the mini blinds were broken.
All in all - it was a just fine stay, but nothing that would draw us back to stay here if we had other options.