The Air bnb really has an amazing view above copacabana and the Christ. The place is in a favela called Babylonia in leme, it s pacified and under police control 24/7, so it's really safe and we never felt uncomfortable, except when we went out once at night because there are so many dogs there... And two where barking at us and following us for a bit. The guesthouse is up a steep hill, so it's very tiring to get up there, there is a motor taxi stand at the bottom of the hill but we never took one because we were not comfortable with it. As for the lodge: I never met thiago in person, which I found a little unsatisfactory since I booked the apartment through him. We were picked up by his mom Vera who only speaks Portuguese, but we speak a little, so we could manage. The room was ok, but we have to say that the beds were very very hard and nothing like a bed.. And since we stayed for six nights we didn't like that part so much... I really had limb ache each morning! The breakfast is ok and rich and they offer it from 8 - 12 am which is very generous, but we had to figure out ourselves that we had to get all the stuff out of the fridge ourselves and put it back and so on. I just would have wished for more communication. To sum up, Vera is really very nice and helped s out when we had questions about taking buses, although we had a language difficulty. The place is very clean, which I find important. It's very close to the beach and to copacabana and the important bus lines, but you have to consider that it takes about 15 min to get up the hill on foot. We had a good time there!