Mike's place is located centrally in the heart of Mile End, a bustling neighborhood with vibrant street life. Unfortunately, the location is the one advantage here. Not only did Mike not live up to his reviews, but his place is less than pleasant to stay in. From the first day, when Mike let us in (despite the advertised self check-in, he insisted on being there in person " to explain things "-- things like operating the TV, which could have been explained in the House Manual. Instead, the House Manual contains nothing but a warning that guests will be fined for breaking anything in the apartment)- we felt something was definitely off. The apartment had a strong acid smell of a powerful cleaning agent being used, but we opened windows hoping to disperse it. It never went away. Then there was Mike himself, who upon arrival directed us to a parking space behind the building, which later turned into an angry encounter with the actual owner of the space, who was evidently not Mike. We were obliged to find our own paid parking several blocks away. Having misrepresented the parking situation, Mike proceeded to make a real nuisance of himself, first in a rather transparent attempt to make an additional profit by charging more for some additional days than the Airbnb rate, insisting it be paid to him directly in cash or on Paypal ( only when we pointed out to him that his proposed "bargain" rate would be a third higher than Airbnb's did he relent) and then by completely disregarding our privacy and need for Covid safety; after having spent the better part of half an hour trying to finagle us into paying him his extra bargain rate, and needing to be reminded to wear his mask properly or at all, he left, only to return unexpectedly and unannounced the following night in the middle of our dinner to collect some things of his from the apartment. But that was not the last we heard from him. There were daily text messages about windows being open or not, lights being on or not, reminders to clean the apartment, etc--and we had the distinct impression of being under some sort of daily surveillance by Mike, even though he had initially told us he was going to be away for two weeks.
On the day of our checkout, Mike turned up two hours early to inspect the apartment, and stood by to watch as we loaded our car to leave, mumbling something about not wanting any "bad press".
In the end, Mike's unsavory and creepy behavior ruined what might otherwise have been a pleasant stay in a great area.