Thomas was unable to join us, so our boys and I went to Rio. We rented Carolina’s flat in Ipanema for 4 days. It’s facing Gral Osorio square where there’s an artisan market on Sundays, and a produce market on Tuesdays. It's a safe area. We walked to the lake in the evening without problems. It’s one block to the beach, but because it’s not facing the beach, it’s pretty quiet. The flat looks as it does in the pictures, and because it’s on the 8th floor, it has a nice view to the ocean. The block of flats is a condo building with swimming pool, sauna (car park, too.) There are supermarkets, cafes, etc. all around. There is a bus stop right across the street from the flat, and the metro station is in the square. Very conveniently located. Our reservation e-mail said check in at 1pm, and check out at 10am. We received e-mail from Carolina saying check in will be at 2pm because previous people were checking out at 12 and flat needed to be cleaned. We waited in the lobby until a little before 2pm when we were able to check in. The flat had just been cleaned, but there was hair in the shower, and the glass on the living room coffee table was broken. Shards of glass were on the coffee table. Carolina explained there had not been enough time to remove the broken glass. There was an old sheet of info with an old WIFI password that didn’t work. After using a different WIFI connection, we got the correct password from Carolina. The kitchen had a microwave, gas cooker, pots and pans, silverware, dishes, etc. The extractor fan did not work. The sink only had one tap – no hot water tap. The hot water in the shower was very powerful to start with, but it went off after a couple of minutes. We tried different ways of running the hot and cold water, but couldn’t have the hot water stay on for longer. When we stopped the shower, water would still be dripping. Carolina informed the front desk, and they sent the night guard to have a look. This was about 10.30-11pm at night, when the children were asleep. He closed the taps so tightly (big, muscly guard!) I couldn’t open them again. Eventually, we manage to close them enough so they didn’t drip and I could still open them (but not the children – my tween boy was unable to open the shower taps). The security guard also removed the broken shards of glass (this was the second night after check in). The next day (third day), the front desk said they couldn’t remove the rest of the glass, and turned the coffee table with the sharp, broken bits towards the wall, so it was less of a danger. The air conditioning was loud, but worked very well. We asked if we could also check out at 12pm, as the previous...