I usually don't make such long reviews, but with this one I feel I need to talk about the "good", "the bad", and "the ugly". If there's mostly good and a "little bad", I usually leave it as good. But I'm significantly concerned about some things that happened and feel I need to share.
Overall, I do not recommend staying here if you have another option. Here's my feedback, from "good" to "bad" to "ugly":
The good.
- As mentioned by others, the place is nicely done, seeming to be quite new. It's pleasing to the eye and has almost everything you might need.
- The location is actually quite nice, with many restaurants right outside and one block over are a bunch more. It's also only 15 minutes from the Louvre. This is great for someone wanting to explore the city.
- Someone was waiting at the location when we arrived and showed us in, explaining the quirk with opening the door, which was helpful.
The bad.
- This place is a LOT smaller than it appears! Be aware of this if you choose to stay.
- It doesn't seem to have air conditioning, which surprised me. It was starting to get hot, and I couldn't find any controls. I checked in the APP and noticed that the Air Conditioning was crossed off, indicating that it was not available. It should have this option.
- They promote this as a place where up to SIX people can stay. This place should not have more than FOUR. In order for six to stay, two would need to use the pull-out couch and everyone would walk over each other. The bedrooms are so small that the luggage can't be left on the floor. We had to put all the luggage in the living room, and even then you couldn't leave anything open without tripping over it. And it all had to be moved and stored next to the table in order to open up the pull-out bed.
- They have only one bathroom and one shower. Again, for six people, this is not good. For four, you can plan and work around it - but not so easily for 5 or 6.
- Basically this place is only good for leaving luggage and sleeping, with lots of challenges in sharing shower and toilet space.
- The bathroom hinges creak loudly, so anyone sleeping on the pull-out sofa in the living room will be awoken easily. This is such an easy fix - put some oil on the hinges!
- We ran out of toilet paper for five of us in the 1 1/2 days we were there. Four woman and one man. Granted that my family might use more than average, there should have been a couple rolls tucked away in the storage closet.
The ugly.
- Check in is at 17:00 (5PM). I have never stayed at any hotel or AirBnB where there was a 17:00 check-in! Hotels typically use 14:00 (2PM) or even 13:00, and if they have space, can let you in early. I get it that this is not a hotel, so I wouldn't expect the same; however, 17:00 is ridiculous. We were able to store our luggage at the place from 12:00 on, so the place was empty. It took them 5 hours to clean? They seem more interested in treating this as a business where they can save a few bucks rather than making sure it was cleaned earlier. I did research and they are part of a larger group of AirBnBs, so they probably use a cleaning company (or individual) for multiple locations. It's not right to make clients wait until 5PM, especially knowing that they are probably coming in from out of the country. When I asked Jose about this, his response was simply to have our luggage placed in a luggage storage location in town. No concern to try to help get us in earlier. Only after I pressed, did he say that we could store our luggage there after 12:00.
- Communication with Jose and the company was very cold and I felt that they were not that concerned about us. It was more of a transaction to them - get us in and get us out. Period. I was really surprised by this. They were the only AirBnb (out of five we stayed at during this vacation) that did not even have bottled water available for us on our arrival. This was a nice touch in the other places, knowing that it helps to have this while we figure out where we can get our own.
- The address showing in the AirBnB app was incorrect. There is a section in the app called "Getting there", which is supposed to have the address. This is very convenient. You just open the app, go to the booked place and click on this and voila! Copy the address and get your uber to drop you off there. Unfortunately, when we arrived, I clicked on another section called "How to get inside". Once here, Jose had included "Some helpful details from your Host". The second slide explained how to enter the building. Some text here explained how to dial in a code to "the right of the front door of the building located at XXX", and the address was included here. This address, unfortunately, was different from the one showing in the "Getting there" section. After we were dropped off by our taxi, with five of us and 12 pieces of luggage, we couldn't find the correct address. That's when I went into the app and contacted Jose, who told us that the 2nd address was correct, hidden in this other tab in the APP, and that we "must follow the instructions written" and that they had problems with AirBnB and need to change the address, and "sorry for this". Jose and Agence Rental - you need to understand that if there are