Renato was a great host, quick with communication, and had many great suggestions for things to do while visiting Rio.
There were some hiccups that he handled very well and quickly, and I was happy with his immediate response. When we first arrived, the internet was working, and as soon as we got settled in, it went out. He returned immediately with a technician to solve what turned out to be a very simple problem. We had one member of our group that required the internet in order to do some remote work, so this was invaluable to us. Very happy with his response!
A little about the neighborhood:
As others have pointed out, it can be a little noisy here. There is a metro rail right outside the window, which is not so bad by itself. The issue is that there is also an intersection there, and either through poor street design or poor decisions on the parts of drivers, often times cars get blocked in the intersection while sitting on the rails. When this happens (which is quite often in the morning commute hours), the cars, or the train, or both, begin honking non stop (I'm talking laying on the horn and not letting up) in order to voice their displeasure, despite the fact that there's nowhere for anyone to go until the light changes and the intersection can clear. So, on commute mornings, this can happen perhaps every 10 minutes or so. I am able to sleep with earplugs, so this didn't bother me very much. Some folks have a hard time wearing earplugs and may find this problematic if they want to sleep in past 9am.
The other thing to note is that this apartment is in a business district. What this means is that during the day there are many many places to go eat lunch, have snacks, get juice, etc. However, very few people seem to actually live in this neighborhood, so there aren't a lot of mercados where you can go and purchase food supplies for the house. This may not be an issue for a lot of people, but it is something to note. In the evening most of the lunch places close, so it becomes pretty dead. This isn't too much of a problem either, because there are many places a short bus ride, metro ride, or uber ride away. This neighborhood is a total ghost town on the weekends.
I still recommend staying here, it is a very spacious apartment with lots of light, air conditioning, and a fantastic host. I just wanted to point out the above for people who may be searching for a particular experience.