This Airbnb is in a 5-star location. There are plenty of restaurants, bars, and coffee shops within walking distance. We especially enjoyed Le Darling on St Laurent Blvd., and the bagels at Fairmount Bagel shop. Also walking distance to a couple breweries and restaurant (we liked) La Catrinia.
The apartment is very clean and roomy, the beds are comfortable despite their squeakiness. Don’t let the trash and cigarette butts outside the entrance, fool you. The apartment is much nicer than the extrance implies.
I am rating 4-stars because there isn’t the attention given to the creature comforts of most Airbnbs. Our experience has been that the exceptional Airbnbs consider how a guest might live while occupying the space and provide niceties to make the place feel homey and welcoming. Even simple and inexpensive things like a pen and paper are thoughtful for guests.
Here are other examples …
While coffee was provided, there was not enough (six total servings for four adults staying four nights) and we could not figure out how to work the coffee machine. No instructions provided. A Google search didn’t help. Sugar packets were provided but no creamer. The upside: there is a great coffee shop, Café Myriade - Le Plateau, with excellent roasted Ethiopian coffee a short walk away. The host does provide a French coffee press for making coffee and we used that to make our fresh ground coffee purchased at Café Myriade. Other than coffee and sugar, the host also provided salt, pepper, and olive oil. No napkins, tin foil or other similar amenities. We do like to make breakfast in our Airbnb, so we were thankful for the many grocery stores within walking distance.
The bathroom is beautifully updated and includes a washer and dryer but, again, there is little consideration as to how a guest might use the bathroom. There are no hooks for hanging drying towels or items of clothing, no place to set your bar of soap when in the shower or at the sink, and only two rolls of toilet paper provided for our four-night stay. We brought tissues so were able to make it to the end. A small cloth bathmat is provided but with four people using it, the floor was slippery after a shower. A rug for stepping on when exiting the shower would be nice for safety and warmth. Note for other guests: three laundry pods are provided for washing clothes.
The apartment has overhead lighting throughout. We longed for a softer ambient light after a long day of touring. A lamp next to the couch or a dimmer switch would help. The overhead lighting was too harsh for reading and relaxing before bedtime.
The doors to the bedrooms and bathroom needed to be oiled. This was annoying at night if a trip to the bathroom was needed. We informed the host and heard back immediately but because it was the weekend, they were not able to come out until two nights into our stay. We ended up oiling them ourselves.
We had a second incident where we needed to contact the host. The apartment building has two entrances – one entrance is adjacent to one of the three bedrooms in the rental. In the middle of the night, a beeping alarm sounded in that entrance, and we were unable to figure out how to stop it. We lost a couple hours sleep trying to stop it. We weren’t able to reach the house in the middle of the night, but he sent someone the very next morning. It was some sort of fire alarm that malfunctioned. The technician showed us how to silence it should it happen again. Weird situation but shows that the host did what he could immediately the next morning.