Our time at Jean-Pierre’s flat in Paris was filled with both good and bad. Paris was amazing. The flat itself had some things I would change or wish we had known.
The good:
- Location: This flat is in an amazing location. We love the Marais area. There were so many good restaurants and we were able to walk just about anywhere (we walked a lot. Sometimes for over an hour to get places).
- Clean: the flat was clean, which was very important to us. The only issue was with the fridge which clearly hadn’t been cleaned and had a bunch of crumbs and stains in it.
- Fabrice, who we communicated with for check in and check out once we arrived in Paris, was very friendly and quick to respond.
The not so good:
- One of my favorite parts about staying at AirBnBs is that you can get local recommendations for places to go, things to do, and where to eat, besides the usual tourist traps. In advance of our visit, I reached out to ask for recommendations and in response I was sent the Michelin App to look at top rated restaurants, which totally defeats the purpose. I could have done that on my own.
- The front door to the building doesn’t lock. It’s supposed to, and we were given a code for it, but you can just push the door open. There were other layers of security to get into the flat so it’s okay, but not ideal.
The bad:
- Small: however small you think it is from pictures and other reviews, I can promise you that it’s smaller. It’s too small to spend any time in with two people.
- There is a small couch which was extremely uncomfortable.
- The bed is lofted, which in itself isn’t a problem, but when the room is this small, and the bed is only about 5’9” off the ground and has another support beam that goes the rest of the way across the room, that leads to a lot of ducking. At 6’4” this was quite uncomfortable for me.
- The shower is too small to move in. It was even too small for my 5’4” petite wife. The part of the shower where the handle connects to the wall, gets EXTREMELY hot. My wife accidentally touched it and burned her arm. Since the shower is so small, it’s difficult to avoid.
- The room has zero airflow and feels wet. When we would come back after hours away, the air and everything in it felt wet. Our clothing that got wet by the rain, remained wet for days, and eventually started to smell like mildew, even though we hung them to dry. This was also true for the two bath towels we received. Only two, for 5 days. Which may have been doable were they allowed to sufficiently dry on their own.
- Due to the lack of air and the heat, we had our windows open any time we were at the flat. Luckily, Paris had very beautiful nights. The problem is the windows are above a common area where the garbage is kept and people apparently bring trash out at all hours of the day and night causing a lot of crashing sounds from bottles and other garbage.
- Beyond the trash below the windows, the neighbors were very noisy. We had to get earplugs and put on white noise from our phones.
- As described in the listing and mentioned above, the bed is lofted. I imagined some slight stairs or a built in ladder. Instead, we had to use this rickety old ladder that felt like it was going to break at any time and isn’t actually attached to the bed frame or the wall. We are both in our early thirties so were able to manage, even though it wasn’t ideal. This would be problematic for anyone who isn’t as able-bodied, and frankly, is dangerous for anyone, regardless of their age.
All in all, we got out of the flat what we were hoping to. A place to sleep. However, by our last day, we couldn’t leave the flat fast enough and do not plan on staying there again.