The apartment is in a great location in Ipanema, on a small street (but taxi drivers still know it), just a block from the metro and many buses and two blocks from the beach. There are supermarkets, bars, restaurants and shopping just around the corner and you can easily walk to Copacabana as well.
We felt very safe during our stay and there is a doorman downstairs.
The apartment was almost too big for only 2 people and has everything you need, including a study for work!
We had been suppossed to meet a friend/family of Karen's to get the keys when we arrived, but we ended up getting them from the doorman whom we showed our printed Airbnb reservation since we didn't speak Portuguese. So there was no problem and our arrival time (in the evening) was no problem either. When we left, we simply left the keys with the doorman, which we also did every time we went out so not to lose them.
When we arrived we looked in the closet for the towels, and connected to the internet with the cable we found to then ask for the wireless password.
The doorman does only speak Portuguese, but we still managed to ask him for the supermarket on our first night and all of them were friendly.
We had a phone number in the apartment we could call from the friend/family which we used once and Daniel was responsive.
We would come to stay here again, it's big, clean, safe and fully equipped and we really enjoyed the location.