THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY. The good… the apartment is exactly as pictured, it’s bright, spacious, in a great location near restaurants, bars and markets. The building and entryway are beautiful. We also loved the very Parisian balcony that wraps around the apartment.
The bad… we walked in ( my husband, my two kids and I) and we were so happy to see that the place was bright and spacious, but the happiness didn’t last long. We noticed right away that the place was dirty. Dust everywhere, half finished repairs in the kitchen , fingerprints and smears all over the glasslike kitchen cabinets, sticky refrigerator handles, dirty toilet, dirty tables and dusty floors. My husband and kids decided to take a nap because everyone was exhausted from the trip. I, instead, decided to start cleaning the apartment. It was either that or starting the process of finding a hotel room last minute. I spent over an hour cleaning and after I was done I decided to write a message to the host explaining what we were experiencing and how I had just spent the first few hours of my vacation cleaning his apartment. His reply?…Thank you. That’s all he wrote. No apology. No what can I do to make this better, NOTHING. I wasn’t going to mention this on my review, and I told him that on my message to him but after his response I was disgusted and I realized that not mentioning it would result in someone else experiencing the same things my family and I experienced.
The ugly…the place was HOT. We knew there was no air conditioning but we were told there were going to be fans, and there were two fans but the fans were tiny little fans that did nothing at all. At night we could not sleep because if we opened the windows the noise from the busy street was so intense there was no possible way to sleep even with ear plugs in ( which we tried). The other option was to close the windows but then the heat was so unbearable we felt like we were inside a sauna. We did not sleep for 5 nights!
The first night after coming back from dinner we realized there was not hot water to shower. I contacted the host Philippe once again and he responded he was going to come to the apartment with a coworker to fix the problem. Next day there was still not hot water and I contacted him again asking if he came to try to fix the problem… no response. We took cold showers the whole time.
The balcony, although it could potentially be the best part of this apartment, was full of debris, flower pots with dead plants, parts that were taken off the kitchen cabinets for repairs, mop and bucket etc.
The bathroom has a strange configuration… the bathtub/shower has no door or curtains, so every time someone showers the bathroom becomes a mess. The toilet is in a completely separate room by the front door.
Overall we made the best out of it but we were extremely disappointed with the lack of care from Philippe…we were not expecting a five star hotel, we just wanted basic cleanliness and to be able to at least sleep at night.
This apartment could be great but this host doesn’t seem to care much about the apartment or the people he hosts.