Mariana is a great host. She met us personally and welcomed us to Rio and her apartment, which was very clean and equipped with all that our family of 4 adults and 2 kids needed for a comfortable, relaxing two week vacation in beautiful Rio De Janeiro.
Mariana speaks English quite well and that was great for us since none of us knew any Portugese.
Mariana and her husband gave us good tips for the area. The buffet restaurant Fazendola is a great place to eat, 2 min walk from her apartment. She also gave us her supermarket discount card for using at Zona Sul, also a 2 min walk from the apartment. She also tipped us about the Sunday Hippie market is also pretty much next door and we were able to get some unique Brazilian art there.
She also arranged a cleaning of the apartment in the middle of our stay. This was great.
The apartment itself is located at the perfect spot in Rio, in our opinion. 2 mins from Ipanema and 10 mins from Copacabana. We mainly came to enjoy the beaches so this was the ideal location for us. We only had to take Ubers or public transport for seeing the other sights around the city. Ubers usually arrive within 2-3 mins in this location too.
The apartment had a 24 hour door man facility as well and is fenced in and very secure. As a family with kids, this was great for our peace of mind.
I would absolutely recommend Mariana and her Ipanema apartment for anyone.