Pros
- Location, location, location! Le Marais is an amazing neighborhood and if I lived in Paris, this is 100% where I’d live. There such an abundance of multi-cultural cuisines, bars, shops, museums, everything you could want. You walk outside the apartment and you are surrounded by amazing food, including the famed L’as du Falafel. The apartment is very conveniently located ~5 min walk to the 1 metro line at Saint Paul (you can reach the tourist hotspots from this line) and ~7 min walk to the 7 metro line at Pont Marie
- Air conditioning - there is AC on both levels of the apartment which was a total lifesaver during the summer heat wave when temperatures hit ~105F/40C
- Located on the top floor of the building, I didn’t have any issues with noise when sleeping (we slept in the bedroom on the top floor, the living area with the sofa bed may not be as quiet)
Cons
- WiFi was not usable for work. I had asked beforehand if they had fast, reliable internet before I booked because I need to work and they said yes. Internet speed was around 6 mbps download, 0.3 mbps upload (terrible by any standard). I struggled to load Slack messages and emails without a frustrating lag and frequently got disconnected or froze during Zoom calls. The internet was neither fast nor reliable. They sent someone to check on it, but that’s just the normal state of their wifi and said there’s nothing they can do
- Stairs of the building and unit are extremely narrow and uneven so it’s quite dangerous especially with luggage. As a young, fit person I still struggled with balance every time I climbed the stairs to use the toilet because the stairs were sooo crooked
- Listed as a 3 floor walk up but it’s actually 4-5 floors because it’s 3 floors to get to the entrance door, +1 floor to get to the main living room / kitchen, +1 floor to the bedroom
- Lots of additional house rules and fees/fines that were not communicated via Airbnb. They were hidden in a book or on a piece of paper on the wall. The lack of transparency felt deceptive. They charge you if you get any dirt, makeup, mark on any towels or sheets (something like 20 euros for a bath towel + 15 euro admin fee). If you make any noise after 10pm including playing music, watching tv, or anything else that results in a neighbor complaint it’s a very steep fine, something like ~150 euro I think. Considering the old nature of the building and uncertainty of soundproofing, some leeway or warning would be nice, but the way the notice was written, it sounded very harsh and unforgiving
- There’s a reason why they don’t photograph the shower/toilet.. it’s the tiniest shower I’ve ever seen in my life and quite uncomfortable even as a petite person (even smaller than in Tokyo/Asia)
- They expect you to clean everything but leave you little supplies, we had a paper towel roll with <10 sheets for a 5 night stay. They also expect you to take out the garbage and dump it in public trash bins outside the apartment
- As other reviewers noted, there’s a mysterious rotten egg / sulfur smell that appears randomly. I couldn’t pinpoint what causes it, possibly the shower?
- The front door of the apartment building doesn’t lock, which poses a security concern. The door leads to a busy street which means any person on the street can walk into the building or follow you in
- Customer service wasn’t great. It’s managed by an agency. Some agents (one in particular) had a really bad attitude and didn’t want to help at all. Because it’s managed by an agency, they unfortunately don’t know the properties and can’t tell you specific things about your apartment like where is ___? Does the apartment have ___?