The apartment itself is beyond beautiful. Well decorated, large and spacious, and features massive floor to ceiling windows that flood the unit with natural light and offer stunning views of the city. One thing to note about the unit: there is very little bathroom privacy. The walls of the bathroom are frosted glass, so you can see someone’s every move in the bathroom and it doesn’t do much to block out sound. Either way, it was beautiful.
However, the building has a lot of very odd, unnecessary and poorly managed rules that guests are required to follow and that the host failed to message to us prior to our trip. The host did inform us of the building restrictions, however it was 2 days prior to check-in and after our cancellation period, so we were essentially stuck in the booking. The most difficult of the rules related to the pool. In order to use the beautiful pool (which was the main reason we booked this Airbnb), we had to schedule a time with the front desk (they only had a 7 PM slot for us) and had to wear a swim cap or shower cap to even go in the pool area. For what reason? It’s beyond me. We also were only allowed two people at a time (no guests, and if you’re more than two people in the Airbnb, oh well…) in the space and we were promptly asked to leave after only 45 minutes for the next group. The entire time, we were given no privacy in the pool either, with a guard regularly walking the parameter of the pool watching us. Very bizarre and uncomfortable. We were also required to wear white paper wristbands in order to access or walk around the building / through the lobby. These were meant to signify that we were Airbnb guests and ensure a guard would swipe us into the elevator … which never happened. We always had to walk back to the front desk and ask someone to let us in the elevator because the guards were too preoccupied on their phones or not at their station.
The strange building policies made staying in what was otherwise stunning accommodations an uncomfortable and irritating experience. We loved the apartment, but would have never booked had we known about the strange rules… which is probably why the host was not transparent with us.