I'll start with the good things. The apartment is relatively spacious for a one bedroom in Paris, with lots of warm light and a good view. Neighbourhood was super lively, with lots of bars, bistros and cafes, and only 5 minutes from the metro and buses. The apartment bed was comfy, there was hot water and the place was styled quite nicely. But that's all I have to say about the good things. The bad? Brace yourself:
Before we arrived in Paris, I wrote to the host multiple times to double-check that the key would be left at an accessible location. At first, he sent us to a laundromat, but after a quick Google check, saw the laundromat would be closed before we even landed at 23:00 at night, so I asked the host to choose a different spot to leave the keys. He then said the keys would be at a restaurant close by. Upon landing, I wrote to the host the make sure the keys were there and the restaurant would be open upon our arrival, to which he replied that in the end the keys were not left for us at all and he suggests we spend the first night in a hotel! This was an absolute disgrace as I had asked multiple times to make sure the keys would be waiting for us, as I did not want to be walking around Paris late at night looking for them. And so, we stayed at some random hotel for that night, on the other side of town (as no other place received such last-minute bookings). Waking the next morning, we eventually went to pick up the keys but arrived at the apartment (5th floor, 100 stairs to climb just so you know) to discover it was NOT CLEAN. There was NO toilet paper, dish towls were old and smelly, no dish soap or hand soap, crumbs all over the kitchen, disgustingly filthy oven, grimy shower and dust all over the living room. I sent pictures to the host, who offered to send another cleaning team over only on the next day, but at this point after dealing non-stop with this whole incident we just wanted to make use of our time and explore the city, without having to be at the apartment to watch over our stuff while strangers cleaned the place. Thank goodness, the Airbnb customer support were incredibly helpful this whole time, and refunded us for the hotel, the first night lost at the apartment due to the key incident and they also refunded us a futher 20% because of the dirty state of the apartment. That was the only good thing to come out of this. The apartment clearly belongs to someone who either lives there or only has it cleaned once in a while, the attention to detail was shocking and the communication was slow, twisted and incoherent. The apartment is clearly run and managed by an external company called HostnFly, and no one there is properly available to take care of the customer's needs. Unless they clean up their act and prove it, I don't recommend staying in this apartment, especially if you were hoping to be in a comfortable place to chill after a long day exploring. One of the most disappointing experiences I've ever had to go through on a trip to Europe and it left a bitter taste to what could easily have been a sweet vacation. Thanks though to Airbnb for taking care of loyal customers- that saved the day. Choose your apartments wisely, fellow travellers.