If you are out and about daily during daytime hours for work or activities, this apartment could work well for you. When there isn’t construction noise in the evenings and on Sundays, it’s pleasant. It’s a spacious top floor unit with lovely light, high ceilings and views; located in the back of the building so less noise from the busy street in front. Full size kitchen, large bedrooms and bathrooms with lots of storage. Friendly doormen and other building staff. Good location for walking to restaurants, stores and parks. However, I would not recommend this apartment until construction in the adjacent unit has been completed.
I have never had an experience like this in many Airbnb stays over the past 7 years. During our month stay, we experienced incredibly disruptive, head-splitting construction noise in the adjacent unit with whom we shared a common wall and entryway area for approximately 52 hours per week from 8am to 6pm every weekday and from 11am to 2pm on Saturdays: drilling, grinding, sawing, hammering, and banging into concrete. It was fairly continuous the first, third and fourth weeks, more intermittent the 2nd week. They have been replacing floors, cabinets, pipes, etc. We were unable to normally converse, relax, or function. We could hear/feel the vibrations on the other side of the apartment. Earplugs and headphones did not help. On June 21, 2022 after we had waited two days hoping the noise would stop, we were told by building staff that there would be ongoing construction for three months. After several messages with Xavier, I found the previous guest’s review which was posted after I booked. She had complained about construction noise and said she had to go elsewhere to be able to work. We were not informed about the possibility of construction noise before or during our booking. The noise continued through the day we checked out of the apartment at the end of our month.
Xavier, while he was away on his own vacation, responded to my requests for cancellation by trying to figure out other options and by consulting with the other unit owner during our stay and gave us information including initial assurances that most of the heavy work was done. The noise continued as it would. Construction cannot be expected to be quiet. All we wanted to do was get money back to be able to stay elsewhere because the problem was not solvable otherwise. He said that the noise was happening during authorized construction hours so there was nothing we could do. Xavier responded fairly quickly and was courteous and apologetic in our communications but he would not to let us cancel.
The Airbnb rep heard the noise on a phone conversation, saw the previous guest’s review about construction noise, agreed with my assessment and initially promised options that made me feel hopeful. After Airbnb management was consulted, those options disappeared. We were told that Airbnb policy was that noise is considered “a minor inconvenience” and that we would have to negotiate with the host. After trying to negotiate a bigger refund, I accepted Xavier’s 20% refund to try to move forward. We could not afford another comparable place so we paid to book an additional tiny studio apartment nearby during construction hours. Unfortunately, this studio we booked solely to get away from Xavier’s apartment had different issues but that’s just bad luck. Hopefully other guests will have better luck than we did on this trip.