The owner Josy seems like very nice over the phoneAlthough we never met her. The experience was not good. It started out with a broken bell out front left us standing in the rain with all our luggage soaking wet. There is a second bell inside the gate with a small hole in the gate you are supposed to put your finger though to ring another bell. Really.
This is after walking up 15 steps and the cab gone. Neighbors took pity on is and let us stay in there place till the rain stopped.
As for the the apartment, the furniture is badly soiled. I didn't want to put my belongings on it, let alone sit down on any of the furniture. BADLY soiled.
He listing on airbnb has several pictures of lots of rooms that don't go with this apartment. The owner blamed it on the airbnb photographer. Actually, this is the owners house, with two bedrooms and a bath downstairs and a makeshift kitchen they have split off into an apartment. You have to unplug the extension cord that runs the small refrigerator and microwave to plug in a toaster or coffee pot. The toaster had old food slopped all over it. The refrigerator actually froze anything you put in it.
The bathroom was small, cramped and dirty, and the bathroom door wouldn't close all the way unless you used both hands and all your strength to lift it up and close it with difficulty. We had to ask for towels, there was no soap to be found in the bathroom. Hot water did not work very good.My sheets had a cigarette burn in them. The lights were bare fluorescent bulls hanging from the ceiling. We would get up in the morning and immediately leave in the morning just so we wouldn't have to look at the place. Luckily we slept well until the trucks started rumbling by with public address megaphones blaring in the morning. And the price being charged would have paid for a nice place in Ipanema.
Not recommended unless you are 20 something and just want a place to crash after drinking in Lapa at night.