Deisy's place is wonderful, and she was an outstanding and responsive host!
LOCATION - First off, the location is PERFECT. 2 blocks from the incredible Ipanema beach, grocery/pharmacy/convenience store right outside the door, lots of shopping in walking distance. However, because it's in such a great location, it can be a little bit noisy at night, but the noise inside is not terrible.
APARTMENT - The apartment is beautiful and modern. It's on the 7th floor and has one master bedroom, one room with walls that slide closed next to the living room that open with a comfortable pull-out couch, and the living room also has the same pull-out couch. However, the living room gets quite bright in the morning as it doesn't have black-out shades. There are two bathrooms and showers. There are two entrances, one with a part-time doorman and elevator only, and another service entrance with stairs and an elevator, which you are asked to use after the beach so you don't track sand.
AMENITIES - There is an iron and hairdryer. There is also a drinking water filter built-in which is very helpful in Brazil as you shouldn't drink the tap water. Plenty of pillows/linens/towels, even a sewing ket are provided. There are mini-split AC units in every room so the place stayed nice and cool. And there is a washer/dryer combo, which we had trouble figuring out due to our non-existent Portuguese and confusing controls, but we cracked it eventually—keep in mind it's very high-efficiency and takes hours and hours to finish a load.
THE HOST - Deisy provided everything we needed, plenty of towels, pillows and linens and even US -> Brazil (Type N) power adapters. She also provided some snacks, beer and wine at the start. There's a binder with local attractions etc. She was immediately responsive when we needed something, and met us at both our arrival and departure.
I have a few minor comments that keep me from giving 5 stars:
KEYS - Four of us stayed there, but there were only two sets of keys (one set for the front, one set for the service side), which was definitely frustrating at times when our plans differed (at one point two in the group ended up sleeping on the beach because we didn't hear our friends call up early in the morning after experiencing Rio's amazing nightlife). The locks themselves can be difficult to use, esp the elevator key— I never did manage to figure out how to use from the inside, but one of us in the group had the magic touch.
FIRE SAFETY - We found it a little disturbing that there is no way to leave the apartment or building at all without using 2 to 3 keys (there are no interior knobs for the locks, you must use the key itself), but Brazil seems to have very few fire safety regulations (no smoke detectors, fire alarms, or sprinklers either, but I didn't see those things anywhere I went). That said, this is common judging by our other friends' AirBNB experiences in Rio. Just make sure that anyone who is staying behind in the apartment has one set of keys left in the door in case of an emergency. We did a lot of letting each other out.
ELEVATORS - Both elevators (front and service) went out of service a couple times, and the neighbor yelled at us quite extensively once before helping us because apparently we didn't close the door properly when we got stuck (the interior door closed despite the exterior door not being fastened shut). Both elevators are small and weight limited to 3 people, so you may need to make a couple trips depending on your group size.
WI-FI: It did not work the last 48 hours (but it was probably the service provider as rebooting the modem/router didn't help). When it did work, it was fairly slow, but workable.
All that said, I wouldn't hesitate to book again and can guarantee you'll love both the place and Rio the city if it's your first time!