PROS: The apartment is a beautiful space, with plenty of natural lighting, WiFi and a fully stocked kitchen. Though there is no air conditioning, I found it wasn’t necessary for most of my stay as the apartment tends to be a cool space, and opening the glass windows helps a nice breeze flow in as well. I very much appreciated that Ines met me to deliver the key and allowed me to drop off my luggage early so I wouldn’t have to be carrying it around until check-in time. She graciously showed me the apartment and gave me recommendations for a few local grocery stores and restaurants. I also had a wonderful cleaning lady come by once a week that did an impeccable job of cleaning the apartment (Note: her services are optional and payment for her services are not included as part of the AirBnb booking).
CONS: I booked this apartment for three weeks. Before making the reservation, I contacted the host to inquire about the apartment’s noise levels as I would be in the apartment for much of my visit. I was simply told there were no bar or restaurants on the street which I took to mean I could enjoy some peace and quiet without issue. While there was a major noise issue, it did not come from the street, it came from the upstairs neighbors. Located on the ground level of an old three story building, the apartment’s wood ceiling provides little barrier to the sounds coming from the family that lives upstairs, so that their steps while walking (or running) resonate down into the bedroom and living room. Their footsteps woke me up every morning at 8am, no matter how tired I was from the night before. Second, the apartment’s patio opens up into the the second story neighbor’s balcony and patio. The neighbor’s property sits above the apartment’s patio and surrounds the patio on three sides (the fourth wall rises up into a pathway for the third story neighbor) which means the family’s noise, including that of a singing parrot and temperamental toddler, funnels down into the patio and is distributed into the rest of the apartment, reaching even in the bedrooms which are farthest from the patio. Unfortunately, the toddler and the parrot were active most days and proved disruptive throughout my stay. Closing the large glass windows to the patio helps slightly, but that cuts out the benefit of the outside breeze which can be nice considering there is no air conditioning in the apartment. I walked around using soundproof headphones at times to drain out the noise or when I wanted to nap.