Olivier's apartment is close to transport, not far from the centre, is a lovely apartment in a quiet building and is filled with light. But we had a bad time there, in late December, for two reasons detailed below:
Pros:
* Location -- just a 3 minute walk to the U8 station with convenient connections to the centre -- 3 stops or so to Alexanderplatz. Also trams around the corner, and it's a block to the Mauer Gedenkstätte.
* Look -- a nice, pretty apartment in a quiet building. Filled with light in the morning.
* Cleanliness -- very clean
Cons:
* NO HEAT -- in mid-winter, with below 0 C temperature outside, we had NO HEAT. The many radiators were all off with little signs saying not to use them. We contacted him about it the second day, and although he was responsive before and after that, he just didn't reply to the message. We wore our outer clothes in the apartment to stay warm, and so we ended up avoiding spending time in the apartment due to the cold. We ate in the kitchen, which, after cooking, had a little heat, and then went right to bed.
* Bed frame collapsing -- the slats in the bed frame kept falling off. We're not overweight, and this happened just by (gently) getting into bed. We also wrote him to ask if there were a way to prevent this. No reply.
* Skylights over bed -- one of the skylights over the bed has no shade, so one is woken up quite early. We are early risers, so that's fine, but it's nice to have a choice.
* Iffy communication -- as per above, when we had real problems, he didn't reply. But when we didn't have a problem, he was quick to reply. When he wrote, he was very friendly, flexible, and seemed a great guy. We have no idea why when we needed some help with the heat he disappeared. Maybe the message got lost?
All in all we think we'd recommend this apartment in summer. It was nice, clean, centrally located, quiet building, Olivier seemed (for the most part) friendly and responsive. But unless the heating situation gets addressed, we'd not recommend it in winter.