The appartement is located in the Bairro Alto, a lively district with many bars and restaurants. Naturally, this implies a lot of noise in the streets at night. The appartement has fairly new windows which filter most of that noise from the street so that this is not an issue. However, a lot of noise comes from within the house. You can hear every step from the neighbors and in particular sounds from the staircase permeate the appartement door which can be very annoying at night.
We found the appartement very clean. It has a nice wooden floor and is reasonably furnished. Only a space to store one's clothes is missing. The photos are somewhat dated. There are quite a few stains on the wall, a renovation wouldn't hurt.
Our biggest issue, however, was with the dampness of the place and the musty smell that comes with it. This is probably a problem common to all of the old buildings in Bairro Alto but particularly acute here, since one cannot leave the windows open during the day (persons could climb in) and not during the night either as it would be far too loud.
Joao is an excellent and very responsive host who does whatever he can to resolve any problem that may come up.