Two of us stayed at this apartment for 7 days upon our arrival in Buenos Aires.
When I write reviews, I try to be objective and put in all of the things that I would have liked to know before renting a place. This makes for long reviews, but hopefully, helpful ones.
* Location
The apartment is in a great location, easily walkable to the bars and restaurants of Palermo Soho, but not so close that you get the noise. Also, one can walk to the Scalabrini Ortiz Subte station in 4 or 5 minutes. There are coffee shops and grocery stores within a block or two. Plaza Italia is a 10 minute walk.
* Light
There is a decent amount of light in the apartment, with windows on two sides. One does not need to turn on the lights during the day. There are shutters on the outside of the windows that can be raised and lowered. These can be used to block light while sleeping.
* Sound
The nights were pretty quiet except for the occasional dog barking session. During the day, there is the constant background sound of kids playing at the school nearby, but I did not find that very distracting. The neighbors were mostly unheard, except for a few occasions where one neighbor blasted music, but this was during non-sleeping hours and did not go on for a long time.
* Kitchen
The kitchen is a bit small but has plenty of appliances--gas stove, oven, refrigerator, blender, toaster, coffee maker, etc. There are pots and pans and dinnerware and cooking utensils. (I didn’t do much cooking during my stay.)
* Bathroom
Everything seemed fine. The hot water worked well. Soap, shampoo, toilet paper, etc. were provided. It was a little odd that the ventilation windows led into the kitchen. 🙂
* Bedroom
The bed and bedding were comfortable. There is plenty of closet space.
* Living room
The couch/daybed was large and comfortable. The expandable table with stools met our needs, mostly as a workspace. We never turned on the television, so I cannot speak to that.
* Internet
There were some internet issues when we arrived. Whenever we put a load on the network (for example, downloading a podcast or running a network speed test) as well as a few other random times, the router would reboot and we would be without WiFi for a few minutes. The host quickly contacted the internet provider and scheduled someone to come over a few days later, which required us to be at the apartment for a 6-hour time window, which was not the best way to spend a vacation day. Having a technical discussion using my terrible Spanish was awkward.
On a more minor note, we were given the wrong network ID and password for the WiFi when we arrived, the one listed on AirBNB was also incorrect, and the one posted above the router was also incorrect, but the label on the bottom of the router had the correct information, so that was not a big deal other than the time spent searching.
* Cleanliness
The apartment was clean. There were plenty of cleaning supplies.
* Maintenance
No major issues. There was a crack in a window, some chipped paint on furniture, and most of the closet doors don’t fit very well, but nothing that impacted our stay. The cords for the blinds were knotted up when we arrived, but after a few minutes of teasing out the knots, they were functional.
* Check-in/check-out
We were required to pick up and drop off the keys from the doorman at a location about 15 blocks away. This just meant that when checking in and out, we needed to have the driver stop and wait a couple of minutes while we got the keys (which went smoothly). It seems simple enough, but In practice, it’s a bit of a pain to do this when you first arrive in an unfamiliar place where you don’t really speak the language and have to deal with the whole issue of getting a ride from the airport, which is generally a pain at the best of times without having to arrange a stop in the middle. And hoping that the guy with the keys will be there (which, thankfully, he was.) It had the advantage of not being impacted by a really long delay at the airport on a Friday evening. I never actually met the host.
On the plus side, we were allowed to stay an extra few hours after the posted checkout time, which was greatly appreciated!
* Laundry
The washing machine worked fine. There is a set of clothes lines that can be raised and lowered by the kitchen sink as well as communal clotheslines on the roof terrace.
* Miscellaneous
When we booked the place, we did so on the basis of the 6 glowing reviews on AirBnB. (The last review was a little over a year ago.) I was a bit surprised when I was told that we were the first guests. I don’t know what that was about.