Marco was a gracious host, kind and very welcoming. Marco is the host, but not the owner of the unit, and if I owned an Airbnb he is the kind of property manager I would want managing my rental. He met us at the apartment based on the arrival time of our train and gave us the tour of the place and directions to some of the closest attractions.
We had an unfortunate mishap with the keys, in which we were given the wrong key to the exterior of the building. (Apparently the locks had been changed recently.) Thankfully the wifi reached the front door and I was able to communicate with Marco who promptly left his home to exchange the keys. Lesson learned to manually test the keys when we check in.
As other reviews have said, there are some things that remind you that you’re in a basement; the occasional cobweb in a remote corner, the darkness during the day (there is one “window” that lets indirect light in), and the faintest musty smell if the AC fan hasn’t been running. The first time using the kitchen sink released a foul sewer smell from the drain, but this was short-lived. The shower is tight and you cannot stand straight up from the toilet without hitting your head. The only food preparation method is two electric stove burners, so don’t plan on reheating any leftovers in an oven or microwave. Despite being in a basement, the sound from the main hallway of the building traveled quite easily into the unit. Thankfully there are only 4-5 other units in the building and no one was coming and going too early or too late. But with all of this, the most annoying thing was that the circuit breaker for the entire unit would trip several times a day and during the night, irrespective of the load at any given moment. It is easy to reset, but it meant the wifi would be interrupted for a couple minutes (a pain if you’re on the phone or working) or if it happens in the middle of the night your phone wouldn’t charge.
The unique character of the place coupled with the unbeatable location was worth tolerating the inconveniences for our 3-night stay, but I would reconsider if my trip was much longer than that.