Olivier was a very friendly and helpful host. We were greeted at the agreed time and provided with plenty of tips about the apartment and surrounding area. The instructions provided were quite comprehensive. Any issues raised were promptly responded to. The location is also great.
We did have a number of issues with the apartment however.
Firstly and most importantly the second bedroom was unable to be used due to cigarette fumes permeating from adjacent apartments. This was present even with all windows closed, both during the day and at night. We had planned to have our 18 month old baby sleep in that room but had to put her in the main living room as the smoke was unbearable. This defeated the whole point of booking a 2 bedroom apartment.
Secondly, the bathroom and kitchen were not very clean - bath tub and tapware were covered in soap scum and hadn’t been properly cleaned. The cooktop was greasy and hadn’t been properly cleaned either. A professional or thorough clean before guests arrive would be advisable.
Thirdly, there appear to be a lot of short stay apartments in this building, and this results in a large number of parties with loud music at all times of the day and night, along with corresponding cigarette smoke. The revolving door nature of short stay apartments is that people don’t really care about their impacts on others. The windows were quite good at blocking out the outside noise, but some of the music was so loud that it was clearly heard inside with all the windows shut. There is no air con or other ventilation, so when the windows are shut there is no air flow apart from a fan in the main bedroom.
Lastly, the amount of light in the main bedroom while great during the day, was a problem for us at night. The street below is which is full of bars, has bright street lights which are on all night, and the curtains don’t properly block the windows so you get light pouring in all night. We had to wear eye masks from the plane to sleep.
As mentioned, Olivier was a great host, however these issues, mainly the smoke coming into the apartment made one of the rooms completely unsafe to inhabit. This isn’t the host’s fault, but people who book should be aware of this if you are sensitive to cigarette smoke like we are.