First off, the positives; the location is fab! Just off Bloor St West, equal distance between Ossington and Dufferin subway stations. Good bus connections, lots of cafes/restaurants/bars/shops within walking distance. Also a lovely powerful shower, a a quality modern TV and the warmest cosiest blankets.
Next up, the negatives; the fact my sister and I had to use those same blankets to keep ourselves warm. The basement apartment was chilly, and the heat/ac is controlled by the tenants on the main floor so there wasn’t anything we could do about it. Unfortunately it wasn’t great as not everyone in the world has the same internal body temperature! If we had known in advance that we weren’t going to be in control of our own heat/ac levels, that might’ve affected our decision in picking this place. (Positive, Carol’s hubby brought us a couple of heaters for us 4 days into our 5 day trip).
Also there were other things that added to the experience not being all that it could be - upon arrival we couldn’t find the TV remote control (ended up finding it hidden under the sofa), and there wasn’t any handwash soap left out on the bathroom sink meaning we used dishwashing liquid for the first couple of days, until some was delivered.
Communication with Carol, the host, was initially quite fast. She replied to questions the best she could (she was out of town during our stay) but totally disappeared towards the end of our stay. Didn’t hear a peep from her on check out day - which, as someone who has used Airbnb in many countries, I found to be quite unusual.
Last but not least, I wouldn’t suggest staying here if you’re a solo female traveller as it's a basement apartment and if you come back late at night you have to walk down the side of the house to the back, and it’s dark. Very dark. There are light sensors but it doesn’t come on until you get to the the top of the stairs. We ended up using the torch on our phones to be able to see when walking to the apartment entrance.
Probably made worse by the fact we’d just had the most perfectly wonderful Airbnb experience in Montreal before arriving in Toronto, unfortunately, overall this wasn’t an experience that we would want to repeat.