If this rating was based solely on Silvina as a host, it would be absolutely five stars, no question. She patiently waited with her husband for our arrival from the airport, and was extremely helpful with the instructions and advice.

Unfortunately, the apartment has some major issues: some she could address, some she simply cannot. The stairs to get into the place as well as the bedroom are almost better described as ladders than stairs. The kitchen and bathroom are both tiny, with no space in the bathroom to put anything. The shower is literally as small as it could possibly be. There are no closets or wardrobes, and only one place to hang a coat: one hook on the front door. The lone dresser is set underneath a sloped ceiling whereby you have to pretty much be on your knees to access anything, and it's cheap so the bottom drawer doesn't really work. There is no dishwasher, washer, oven, or heat/cooling. The tiny TV plays one station only. Due to the stairs and cramped quarters, this would not be a suitable location for anyone physically challenged in any way.

One of the most unfortunate aspects of the place is that the walls are so thin we actually heard one of the neighbors sneeze, and one of them apparently comes home from work about midnight; he talked rather loudly for quite a while and we could hear every word. Worse than that, on Thursday and Friday we could hear some sort of disco or party music playing from somewhere outside the place until, and this is true, 5:00 AM. It was the DJ-shouting dance-beat kind of music that's hard to ignore. As a result, my wife and I both had two very tough nights sleeping, and I'm usually pretty good at sleeping through anything. Obviously some of this is no fault of ownership, but visitors need to be aware if we're going to be honest.

Still... other than the all-night-long music we didn't hate it because it has its old world charm, and Silvina as a host. The location is excellent as the Belem area is very nice and it's extremely easy to catch a bus or train to downtown (about a 20 minute trip) or wherever you want to go. But when the music played until 5:00 AM, well, we knew we just couldn't possibly ever go back there again. But we would certainly go to any other property Silvina manages.