The best parts of this listing are the location - close to old Montreal without being in the thick of the tourists - and the size/decor. The cafe below is also nice.
I think you'll get the gist of everything else that's great by reading the other reviews. Keep in mind the good for this place is really good. The following are nitpicky items that on their own were not a huge issues, but led us to detract a star:
- The HVAC was an issue while we were there. The fan would not shut off no matter what we did so the kitchen was like a wind tunnel. I contacted Phil and sent pictures but he was not much help. Admittedly I could have kept at it, but we had a busy schedule and I didn't want to waste any more time messing with the issue. Come nighttime it would cycle on and off and made it hard to sleep. There are also like 3 old sets of thermostats and it's confusing what controls what. At one point the baseboard heaters came on right under the curtains and seemed like a fire hazard.
- The big windows in the main bedroom provide great light, but they also make it hard to cover completely with curtains. In the summer with the early sunrise, the room gets bright around 5am.
- The beds were a little stiff for our liking. I generally like firm beds but these felt stiff in an Ikea kind of way. Also the linens were pretty rough. Others have mentioned the couch.
- Note that it does not have a working bidet as pictured. It has a plant in it now.
- The street entrance to the flat was kind of trashy. There was a big can of cigarette butts on the steps and a few other discarded items sitting there that we threw away. I guess people use it as a smoking area? It's kind of random because the back of the cafe has a floor to ceiling window facing the stoop. IDK maybe those things just got placed there randomly b/c of trash collection that week or something.
- Phil contacted us a few weeks before our trip to see if we would rent a different flat instead so they could redo the floors in the loft. We declined and then didn't hear back for a few days. Made us start scrambling for another place to stay unnecessarily.
- Construction going on across the street while we were there was pretty noisy. Not much you can do about that though. Lots of construction all throughout the city in the summer.
Despite these issues, we still had a good trip. I think the loft would benefit from a few updates in the bedrooms/bathrooms and maybe some more info on the check-in binder. It's a handsome flat with lots of space in a central location, but functionally leaves some room for improvement.