A beautifully cozy, clean, and comfortable apartment that gives you the perfect Paris experience with some incredible host support, but suffers from a few small compromises that feel unjustified in its high asking price.
[Cleanliness]-wise, the place was generally quite clean, though there were some corners that were cut. Some food products being left in the kitchen led to a small ant infestation, though I hope that will be resolved in the future.
[Accuracy]-wise the apartment is just as it looks in the pictures, it’s even more spacious than it first seems, though I found several of the amenities listed on AirBnB to be inaccurate or outright missing. The lack of a picture of the toilet area in the listing is also concerning.
[Communication] was by far the best part of this stay. The host was incredibly committed to making sure the stay was as good as possible, was easy to reach at most times, and even went out of his way to buy me any missing amenities and make sure I was as comfortable as I could be. I would legitimately give communication 6 stars for the extraordinary commitment of the host, which made me feel safe and under control at all times.
[Location] is fairly good, though it is located in a downtown area of Paris, I nonetheless found the area to still feel safe and comfortable to live in, with great connection to restaurants, supermarkets, and the metro. There also wasn’t much noise at night (only mild white noise in the background) which made it easy to sleep. The apartment itself is also particularly beautiful, cozy, and classically Parisian, especially with the astounding balcony view.
[Value] is unfortunately the issue for me with this stay though, because there are several problems that compromise its value. During summer, it’s borderline torture to stay in this room without an AC (and though the owner was great enough to buy me a fan, it sadly didn’t help much), the lack of curtains make it hard to sleep after the sun rises due to all the light that comes in, the kitchen is sorely lacking in utensils to cook anything, the internet is only available via limited pocket wi-fi (there is no local wi-fi), drying clothes can become really difficult, and you have to climb six flights of stairs everytime you leave (with no elevator). Some parts of the room were slightly broken or very old and damaged too. Now, compromises are an understandable part of traveling and I didn't mind struggling a bit for the sake of an experience, but considering how expensive this apartment is (at $2.4k a month), it does not feel like a good value for its price. Though I understand how expensive real estate in Paris can be, for how tiny this apartment is and how many problems it brings, the asking price feels like simply too much, as I feel there are far better options for similar value.
Given several of these problems, I unfortunately find it more difficult to recommend this for a long-term stay, in spite of how much I enjoyed it, as these problems will become rather prevalent and frustrating with how much you are paying. I feel the apartment is better suited to quick short vacation stays, for which I think it works excellently, but unfortunately it requires a minimum of a week to be reserved. Regardless of that though, it really can’t be understated how helpful and devoted the host was to make sure my experience was as good as it could be, and how legitimately beautiful and cozy it was to live in there, and it made for a legitimately unforgettable experience that I would still wholeheartedly repeat again, though if it was priced better I’m sure I’d be even more convinced to do so.