Overall, a very pleasant experience. Very nice apartment in a great location, minutes away from either Copacabana or Ipanema. Daily cleaning service provided, one just had to leave the key at the reception in order for the ladies to have access to the apartment. They even washed my dirty dishes!
The building is a sort of a hybrid, condo/hotel, thus the maid service; of course, as is the case with most of Rio, English is not wildly spoken, so, as nice as the reception staff were, the communication was difficult, particularly when it came to securing airport transportation very early in the morning on the day if my departure. Guess, ultimately it was my fault for not speaking the native language.
One issue, however, was the daily frustration with the shower operation. Either the small gas water heater was malfunctioning, which would certainly dispel the myth of German excellence in engineering (Bosch), or the problem was the pipe connection, but it was impossible to maintain a constant temperature of the water. The temperature would become steaming hot and if you turned on cold water that seemed to turn the gas off, so, you'd get shocked by a blast of cold water. So, you need to turn the hot water off and then turn it on, when you would hear the gas ignite and then carefully wait for the water to warm up, and then you would have about 8 secs of optimal temp before the cycle would begin again. It was a ritual of mostly tinkering with the knobs, outside the shower, and quick moments under it. It was not a disaster of major proportions, given Rio's tropical climate, but it was annoying enough and Charles should fix it as soon as possible.
Finally, the deal breaker for me for choosing the place was the Nespresso machine in the apartment (Charles even provided the pods) so, no coffee withdrawal issues to deal with and I could focus my full attention on enjoying the city..