The place felt more like a youth hostel than a "luxury penthouse". POSITIVES: This 4th floor apartment has lovely views and big picture windows (note: there is no elevator and a total of 9 flights to get up). The space is full of bright light and is airy. The bathroom is modern with a terrace right outside. The owners are artists, so the place is full of orginal art pieces. This place seems great for a group of teens or 20 y/o's looking for a convenient and safe place to stay. However, I do NOT recommend it if you are looking for a nice, clean, well-furnished place to stay. NEGATIVES: It was quite dirty, in many regards (from cigarette butts on the floor to horrible smells in the linen and closets, to dirty dishes in the cupboard to questionable brown crust on the bathroom wall, and more). The conveniences are spartan, not even one towel person (we got 3 clean and 1 dirty towel for 6 people), the bedsheets were filthy and the kids bedroom had ants in the beds. The main room with the bed for 3 had no window shades but wall to wall windows so there is zero privacy in dressing or anything else.
DETAILS:
We were shocked to find a dark stain on the bed sheets and animal fur on most of the clean sheets. The entire living room smelled of cigarette smoke and the laundry closet which is in the kids' room had a horrible musty odor that leaked into the room. The bathroom wall next to the toilet had brown crust on it (I fear to think what it was), one of the bath towels smelled as if someone had poured cigarette ashes in it, one there was dust in every corner, and a used cigarette butt in the corner next to the trash can and kitchen cabinet. We went to get a coffee cup and found a filthy cup that was clearly never washed stacked in with the clean dishes. This was the state we found the place in right as we arrived (plus this is a non-smoking apartment). There is one toilet and it is connected to the kitchen resulting in unpleasant sounds and odors in the kitchen. To think that there is a $165 cleaning fee--it certainly was not well cleaned!
The place was not well stocked. There were exactly 1.5 rolls of toilet paper for the 6 of us for 5 days so we had to go to the store and buy our own. There was one hand towel for dishes, no paper towels or cloth napkins of any kind. There were 4 bath towels for 6 people and one smelled so bad we couldn't use it. It was very spartan and poorly stocked. Certainly not ready for a family to stay in it. The "newly installed kitchen" had a faucet that shot out at the user so your shirt was soaked after washing a dish, the cabinet doors had no pulls and we struggled to open them by sticking our fingers between the cabinet door and the frame. The 3 level bunk bed had no ladder so my kids struggled to get up and fell a couple times. (There is a ladder that goes to a separate loft only.) There was a loose electrical cord hanging from the 3rd bunk down to the 2nd bunk. The kitchen light fixture had wires hanging out of it and the wire nut connectors were dangling.