Elsa’s apartment was better than expected. Fantastic views, modern furnishings and amenities. Palermo and the surrounding areas (Palermo SOHO, Palermo Hollywood) are great. Full of plenty of restaurants and bars to choose from whatever your taste.
Elsa is really an amazing host. She was waiting for us when we arrrived from the airport and was always available when issues arrived. In fact, I have to commend her. During the first night of our stay we notified her the hot water boiler unit was not operating. She quickly had a plumber there the next day while we were out touring the city. By the end of the day she let us know that they would need a different technician to look at it. Elsa offered us to move to another of her airbnb condos in Recoleta (either temporarily or for the rest of our stay). Luckily it was not already rented. We decided to just go for the one night and hoped the boiler could be repaired. We liked the Palermo apartment very much and didn’t really want to move. Elsa was great - she even came into the city, picked us up in Palermo and drove the 3 of us to the new apartment. Fortunately the boiler was repaired and we could continue the rest of our stay in Palermo.
A second unfortunate incident took place when one of our mobile phones was stolen at a restaurant (beware of your surroundings everywhere in Buenos Aires!). Don’t leave your phone just sitting on your table anywhere. While being lost in our dinner conversation, someone just walked into the restaurant, walked right by our table, grabbed the phone sitting on the table next to its owner and was out the door and flying down the street on a moped in just seconds. Unfortunately, a trip to the police department was not on our vacation agenda. After wasting time in the police department late that evening, we were not able to report the incident. There were technical issues connecting with the central system to take statements. The police appeared not to be very concerned. In fact, weren’t even interested in going to the location a few blocks away where Find My iPhone told us the phone last was before it went offline. Upon telling Elsa about the incident and our experience at the police department, she was furious and wanted to make sure this was reported to the police. She actually came the morning of our last day and drove my friend back to the police station to ensure a formal statemement was filed. Although the same system still had issues connecting to the city’s central server, Elsa made sure the police took a paper statement instead - something that appeared not to be an option a couple evenings before.
Thanks again for the great stay, being so accommodating and so very helpful!