The location of the building in relation to the city is ideal and probably the single best thing about it. If you are flying to Victoria, you can take a shuttle directly from the airport and it will drop you off at the Swan's Hotel & Pub directly across the street from the Janion building which saves a ton of time and money when it comes to getting to and from the airport.
This unit is located in the old, original Janion building and it has huge picture windows that look out over the street and the city beyond. The ceilings are high and open and the exposed beams are just gorgeous to lay under at night. That said, this also becomes one of the biggest problems we had with this unit which was that the noise level was remarkably high. Several times we had to check the windows to make sure one of them wasn't open because the street noise was so loud and clear it was as if the cars and people were standing right next to us. We have no idea why it should be so noisy because it's clear the windows are new and the place has been renovated. This building is located in a busy, popular area and so there is always people walking around and talking and shouting and as the night goes on, they only get louder and more drunk. We could hear entire conversations and shouting matches from the street below, even three stories up. It's also located at a very busy intersection and so cars are coming and going and beeping nonstop. When it finally settles down around 5 a.m., that's when the garbage trucks come to wake you up once again. I am writing this in detail only because I would've liked to have known this about the unit prior to booking. As a light sleeper, I found it to be a huge problem but heavier sleepers or guests who want to be out and about into the wee hours of the night may find this to be a non-issue.
We had some discrepancy and confusion about a $20 charge that would be incurred for the use of the sofa bed. Again, this is something that had we known about it prior to our arrival, we would've booked another listing. We were told it was in the House Rules, however the House Rules themselves state that a charge is only incurred for less than four guests. I took a picture of this page in the House Rules manual just to make sure I didn't misunderstand. To their credit, the host waived the fee immediately but I would suggest making this very clear in both the listing and in the House Rules manual for future guests.
The listing also stated the use of a cell phone to use for local calls but upon arrival this was nowhere to be found. When we asked about it we were told that it was broken and had been taken in for repairs. Luckily we had the use of our own cell phones (after adding a daily fee Canada plan) but if we had been counting on being able to use that phone, this would've been a huge issue.
Upon arrival we also discovered that the WiFi was not working. This was fixed within the hour by the manager Angela but before she arrived, the host instructed us to call the cable/internet company for assistance. This seemed super odd and unhelpful to us. The last thing we want to do on vacation is sit on the phone with the cable/internet company. It was also clear from the host's response that she knew the internet hadn't been working since the last guest had stayed but had done nothing to fix it prior to our arrival which was rather odd too. But again, this wasn't a huge deal because it was quickly fixed and we appreciated it.
The entire apartment is outfitted like an Ikea showroom. This is not an exaggeration, every single thing in the place is from Ikea. This is totally fine but I guess I was expecting a place with as much character as the building itself. The bedrooms and bathrooms are also very small and tight, but beautifully finished and since we didn't spend much time in either place this was fine. The living room and kitchen area were fun to hang out in and again, the light and the view from the windows is stunning.
All in all we were happy enough with our stay in this apartment but it simply wasn't the best fit for us and there were certainly small details that appeared to be overlooked (but this could easily be remedied for future guests).