The apartment is in a great location, less than 5 min walking distance from two different subway stations. The little terrace leading to a quiet courtyard is a nice feature (though it's not at all private, as the courtyard is shared with all the neighbors). The bathroom is very functional and modern, and the whole apartment is very clean. At the same time, the apartment has some serious drawbacks, which makes it overall too pricey in my view:
- Check in: we were asked to pick up the key from a Foto Shop about 10 minutes walking distance from the apartment. We arrived there on a Saturday at around 5 pm. The shop was already closed! There was a grumpy guy behind the counter, however, who told me that he had closed at 4 pm. After a long winded discussion he finally agreed to "make an exception" and hand me the key nevertheless, not without telling me that I was very fortunate not to end up with no key at all. I had not received any notice from the landlord that the shop would close at 4pm, and anyway there's no way I could have made it to Berlin this early.
- Finding the apartment itself was very difficult, as we had not received any detailed instructions, and it is in a big complex of apartments. We had to try the key in many different keyholes. Finally, we found the apartment and just around that time the landlord also sent an email with more detailed instructions - but this came too late to be of help.
- Apartment interior and furniture: unfortunately, a few things were broken and not functioning properly. The kitchen faucet is wobbly and so loose that it cannot be used properly. A socket fixture fell out of the wall when I unplugged my charger, exposing the bare wires inside. This could have been potentially dangerous, especially when travelling with a small child! Instead of two chairs, as seen in the pictures, there was only one chair on the terrace (when I brought this to the landlord's attention, she arranged for us to get two more chairs, though, which was very much appreciated). There is no wardrobe or place to store clothes properly, just two spindly shelves. Also, I would like to add that the apartment is *not* bright. On the contrary, as it only gets light from one side, it is rather dark during the day.