The neighborhood was far beneath what we were expecting from the price. Given the beautiful interior of the home, as well as the vibe we got from the photos of the exterior and written description, we thought we were going to be staying in a special, nice-looking area.

Instead, within a few hundred yards, there were unfortunate homeless people, seedy sex shops, which was a complete let down.

If you're coming to Paris, you are likely to want, and expect, as we did, to be able to come home to a place you like coming home to, particularly if you're paying a premium. This was not it. Yes, the place is beautifully furnished, but the neighborhood and the hostesses involvement was not positive whatsoever.

Perhaps the biggest let down was that there was no view and in fact what you looked out on was an unattractive, somewhat shabby looking building. The apartment is on the first floor so there's little light.

The photo of the living room looks as if it is full of bright light. It also looks as if the room is quite expansive and long. In fact a mirror in the photo only makes the room look large. And the bright white light? I have no idea where it came from because the actual apartment is far darker and the view it looks out on is of another building that is about 15 feet away from it, divided only by a single, one-way street with practically no side walk (18 inches on each side), which makes it somewhat dangerous.

In terms of the hostess, my wife and I would never, ever rent a place from her again. It appears she sent us acknowledgment this morning that she accepted our cancellation of the remaining 6 days, and so we were refunded our purchase less $400 (which included a $75 Euro cleaning fee, despite the fact the apartment was not totally clean). Later, after spending all day enjoying our first full day in Paris my wife and I found that she has attempted to bill us for an additional day, making the grand total $800+ for having spent one night in a place she didn't bother to come over and show us how to enter.

In the first few minutes of arriving at the front door we began immediately to be disappointed. Finally, to be quite honest, there is arguably an element of cruelty in the act of making an apartment look better than it is-- because for many people coming to Paris is such an enormous expense and once in a lifetime or decade experience.

That said, we'll do our best to enjoy the rest of our trip. We found a good place somewhere else, and it felt great to be welcomed-- genuinely-- by our current host-- in person!