We had a lovely nine days in Paris - it's a wonderful city!
The pros of this apartment:
- the location is great - we were able to walk to almost everything we wanted to see and everything else was a quick metro ride away.
- it's quiet - it's set behind another building so it's off the street and there is no traffic or city noise.
- lovely decor and extendable table which made it easier to eat / set up laptops in the dining area.
- washer/dryer and detergent pods! So, so helpful, especially if you're staying 1+ week as we were.
However, the pros made it a difficult place to stay for nine days:
- Beware - the kids room has mattresses that are not full length twin mattresses. While the listing said that it had bunk beds for kids, nowhere did it say that they were not the same size as regular twin mattresses! This is our 12th AirBnb since March (we're traveling for several months) - we've had the kids in bunk beds in several of these and I've never encountered this situation before (as mattresses are small, they may only fit kids that younger than 10 years old). Our daughter ended up sleeping diagonally because she almost fit but our son had to sleep on the pull out couch in the living/dining area, which unfortunately meant that we had no living room for the stay. (We wrote to the owner via AirBnb chat on the day we arrived to say that we felt it hadn't been accurately advertised and he said it was accurate and that we should have known from the photo that the beds are not regular twin beds.)
- When we pulled out the sofa bed, the sheets on it had not been changed and it looked like the previous people had eaten lunch in there - it was filthy. We found clean sheets and towels in the closet of the main bedroom, and remade the bed ourselves, but between that and several dishes being pretty dirty, it wasn't a great start to the stay.
- the layout of the apartment: the kids room is accessed through the 'master' bedroom while the bathroom is off the dining/kitchen area. That meant that every time my daughter had to use the bathroom or when she got up early in the morning, she had to pass through our room, and my son - on the sofa bed - was woken up every single time someone used the bathroom.
- cigarette smoke: at all hours of the day and even in the middle of the night, someone in the building was smoking cigarettes (even at 4am) and the area where my son was sleeping (living/kitchen) would reek of cigarette smoke.
All in all, we would not have booked this apartment if these things had been communicated to us properly as it did not work for our family and our plans for our stay. For some other people, it may not be a big deal, especially for a shorter stay though I definitely think the owner should be more specific about the bed size to avoid misleading people.
At the end of the day, it's Paris so we will have wonderful memories of our visit, mini beds and all!