I took the risk and rented this place for 3 months even though it had no reviews.
As this is the first review ever written about it, I tried to provide as many details as possible to help you make an informed decision.
I will start with the good things:
The location - The apartment is located in the best place in Paris. Period. It is in the heart of the Marais and within walking distance to almost all places of interest. There are also many metro and bus stations nearby if you need public transportation. The neighborhood is lively, and there are endless shops, cafes, bars, and restaurants. Yet, the noises from the street do not make it inside the apartment because it is at the far end of an internal courtyard.
The height - The apartment is on the 4th floor (or 5th, if you count the ground floor as 1) of a charming old building with an elevator (a rare thing in Paris!). Accordingly, it has plenty of air, natural light, and a nice view. The kitchen and bedroom face the internal courtyard, and the living room has a good view of the nearby buildings, a big tree, and quite a lot of sky.
The internal structure – Although the apartment is tiny (37 square meters), it doesn’t feel small due to its well-planned structure. The living room, in particular, is spacious, and the fact that it is a separate room enables hosting a third person (although it doesn’t have a door to allow for privacy).
Furniture and equipment – The place has only basic furniture, which is good, in my opinion, as otherwise, it would feel cramped. It also has most (but not all, more on that later) equipment one may need for an extended stay, such as kitchen utensils, a laundry washer-dryer, a television, etc. The internet connection is strong and stable.
Now let’s talk about the bad things:
Check-in – The property is managed by a company named ‘Parisian Home,’ which usually answers messages pretty quickly and has a very nice maintenance person, Christoph. Other than that, their service is can be improved. The check-in was one of the worst I had ever had. I set an appointment with their agent at the apartment on the day of my arrival. When I saw that my flight was a bit delayed, I called her to tell that. She texted me back to say she wasn’t in France (what?!). My attempts to understand what was going on failed. Eventually, no one was waiting for me at the apartment. After a long day of travel, I had to find the office and go there, with all my luggage, to get the keys.
Cleanness - A greater shock was waiting for me when I walked in. The place was filthy, and everything I touched was sticky. It took me three days of work (and about 100 Euros worth of cleaning detergents) to make it livable.
Maintenance - Moreover, many things in the apartment
A. didn’t work (e.g., some lamps, the coffee maker)
B. were missing (e.g., microwave, vent in the window-less bathroom, something to hold the shower on the wall instead of me holding it in my hand)
C. were broken (e.g., the sofa bed, one of the kitchen cabinet’s doors that at some point even fell on me)
D. were of poor quality (e.g., Teflon pots and pans that were so old and scratched that no one should be using them, bed linens that didn’t fit the blankets’ size).
I let the company know about the various problems, and they sent their maintenance guy to fix them. He came several times and did what he could. The rest, I just had to accept. For example, because the sofa bed in the living room was broken and opening it was a struggle, I left it open for my son for the entire period of his visit. This pretty much canceled the living room function.
The building – the charm of the old building came with several significant flaws. First, during my entire stay, there was not a weekday without renovation work in one of the apartments. This caused a LOT of noise. Second, although the neighbors were nice and considerate, the walls were thin, and I could hear them well into the night. Ear plugs solved that problem. Third, the old elevator broke twice: once for two weeks, and once again for six weeks. Overall, therefore, it wasn’t very useful.
One last thing, the restaurant at the entrance spreads smell of burning wood and meat in the internal courtyard. Most people love it, some don’t.
Bottom line:
Take this place only if you are one person or a couple, in good shape to climb 4 floors when needed, don’t mind cleaning, non-vetetarian, and sleep well.
PS>
As I shared all the above with ‘Parisian Home’ during the check-out, you may want to contact them to find out if some of the problems were solved.