I stayed here for almost 6 months. To put things simply, this was a good stay that could easily be great. Let me point out what worked and what should be changed:
Pros:
- Great location. It felt really centrally located near La Reforma, La Roma, and El Centro. I liked to walk everywhere and it felt very doable and safe overall.
- Cute, ample space. Pictures for the most part are accurate.
- Has everything you need. Washer/dryer, kitchen with utensils and plate ware. Internet. And so forth.
- Super kind porters. Indeed, after 6 months I grew fond of them. One of them would often go out of his way to help me if I had a lot of bags in my hands.
- Good communication. The owners Victor and Paula are very friendly people. Generally good about communication and addressing apartment needs. However, sometimes it lagged. More on that in the cons.
Cons
- Noisy. The drawback of being so centrally located is that apartment is on a busy street. Lots of cars honking all the time. Not great if you're working from home, although I did learn to tune it out after a while.
- Photos weren't totally accurate. They featured lots of plants and when I got there there was only one. It felt more "empty" in terms of decor. There's also this cool neon light fixture in the living room that doesn't work which is a bummer.
- Constant repairs. Since I had to experience the repairs, you probably won't have to haha. But during my time, the sink had to get fixed twice (the faucet part cracked and water would spray everywhere). There's a broken wooden piece on one of the chairs. Had to fix the main dining table cuz it was wobbly. Some bathroom fixtures fell off. The good thing is that Victor and Paula were responsive to getting a repairman in. But it just wasn't ideal to have to experience that.
- Kitchen. If you're big on cooking, the kitchen isn't ideal. There's just not a lot of counter space to cut things! This is a design fault of the apartment. Not the owners. And admittedly, this is a very nit-picky detail. It does the job if you just need to whip things up or you're not a passionate cook. Or if you're just staying short term and won't really be cooking. Oh, and while we're on the topic... the plate ware is so ugly! haha. There are fly illustrations on their plates! I get it... it's quirky or whatever. But I found the design to be really off-putting since you're eating off of them.
- Internet. This was a big issue in my first months. It was slow. Sometimes it stopped completely (this is a fault of Telmex/the city, and not the owners). We finally got it to a place that felt decent and workable. But even then, my phone would constantly disconnect and reconnect from the wifi up until the end. It was quite annoying.
- Lag in communication. So as mentioned above, Victor and Paula are kind people who do attend to the apartment needs. However, to contextualize, about one month in the fire alarm started to squeak due to low batteries. I asked if I could get new batteries and get reimbursed, to which they agreed. But then months passed and they never reimbursed me. (It was small so I felt it wasn't SUCH a big deal to bother about it). But eventually I reminded them to do it and then they said that actually the reimbursement would happen at the end of my stay. I didn't really appreciate this switch-up so I had to remind them that they said they would reimburse me ASAP (with a screenshot). And then they did reimburse me. With repairs, sometimes I'd have to follow up again and say "hey, when will the repairman come?" What I'm trying to get at is, I shouldn't have to be the one to press them and follow up. I'd like the urgency to come more on their end. If that makes sense.
That said, overall I enjoyed my stay. Truly an ideal spot that can be a fantaaaastic stay with some small changes and a little more love.