We had a great time in Paris and found the apartment to be adequate for our stay but with room for improvement.
We have provided a few details based on our experience of being an Airbnb Superhost when we rented our apartment out (over 70 5-star ratings), so we have good experience and knowledge of what guests enjoy, expect and dislike.
Basically, if you want an apartment in a good location and use it as a place to crash after a day of sightseeing, you should be fine, but expect the place to be pretty basic and functional.
Positives:
- The location of the apartment is great if you want to be near the Louvre and the river. When we arrived at Paris CDG airport, it was about 45 minutes on the RER B train to Notre Dame, then about 20 minutes walk to the apartment. Convenient and hassle-free with a decent public transport system. We only had hand luggage, not big suitcases, so you might want a taxi if you have big cases.
- The check-in process was easy and hassle-free. The instructions were correct and we had no issues getting into the apartment. Wi-fi connected fine and worked well. Beware the staircase is quite narrow and may be tricky if you have large cases.
- Check-out was excellent. Simon agreed to allow us to check-out 4 hours later which was greatly appreciated, this meant we could leave our cases in the apartment while we spent the morning at the Louvre.
Negatives: None of the following on their own is a deal-breaker for us, but add them together and it brings the overall rating down.
- The Airbnb listing said we would have coffee but there was none. There was basically no welcome-pack in the apartment, including the supposed included coffee. It would have been great to have a few basics included, such as milk, teabags, perhaps some bread and hand-wash for the sinks. A small expense to outlay but goes a long way as a welcome to guests.
- The lighting in the apartment was awful. The lighting in the main room/kitchen is harsh white downlighting, which is great for general use, but not good if you come back in the evening and want to sit down and relax after walking around the city for hours. No side lighting or small lamps. The bedroom table light was brutal – an exposed bare bulb which was super-bright and very harsh on the eyes – a lampshade would be a great upgrade!
- The towels in the apartment were small and past their best and need to be replaced.
- Some of the linen/pillowcases on the beds were marked/stained. If stains can't be cleaned out, bin the linen and replace it with new.
- The furniture and fittings in the apartment are shabby and would benefit from upgrading.
- The first bedroom had some electrical cable ducting fitted to the wall to extend the lighting circuit/extractor fan, and the fitting is awful, looks like it was done by the owner or someone in a hurry.
- The curtains in the bedrooms are not suitable. They are too long and not wide enough. It is impossible to fully close the curtains to ensure 100% privacy, or to keep out daylight early in the morning.
- A lack of glasses. A few small glasses holding about 100ml, but no 500ml or larger glasses. I ended up drinking juice straight from the carton. Larger wine glasses would be great.
- General cleanliness. The place was dusty in parts, most notably the top of the headboard of the bed. The dishes and glasses were marked and had not been cleaned properly.
- Noisy. The apartment bedrooms face a very busy street and there is a lot of noise from mopeds, motorbikes, drunk people etc. We were really tired so managed to get to sleep quite quickly, but if peace and quiet matters to you, look elsewhere. Also, in a locked cupboard in the living room, there is what appears to be an air-conditioning unit or similar device constantly whirring away. We didn't use the sofa-bed, however, if you do choose to sleep on this, expect to have this constant noise in the background. If you plan to go out in the evening and come back really tired/drunk, you should be fine!
To summarise, nothing in the apartment caused us enough concern to contact Simon during our stay, the negatives are really just a heads-up to anyone considering renting the apartment. We enjoyed our stay and feel with a few small changes the apartment would be worthy of a higher rating.