Rotterdam AirBnB (1st place)
Bertine seemed to be a nice lady and met us at the apartment, even allowing us to check in a little early.
The space is a converted ground-level storefront on a busy sidewalk with people walking by all day and night.
The living room is sprawled across the main floor with a TV stuck in the corner 5-6 meters from the couch. The was no TV channels to watch - only Internet hookup. It made it next to useless to watch after a long day touring the city.
The kitchen is well equipped and very functional, but no oven or microwave. Also no freezer in the under-counter refrigerator.
The only bathroom is downstairs, but it needs work. There are a couple of holes in the walls, the glass shower surround is missing a panel and has a shower curtain jury-rigged in that spot. The tiny mirror is above the sink at about 2 meters up making it next to impossible for a shorter person to use. There is a door to an adjacent apartment that has no lock on this side, which didn’t instill a great sense of security.
We stayed at the end of July, 2018. It was hot with no a/c and only 3 windows that opened (front and bathroom downstairs and back upstairs). The living room window was so high you need to use a boat hook to open and close it, and when the wind changed directions, it would often blow shut. The wall of “storefront” windows at the front are exposed to morning sun, and the windows upstairs at the back were exposed to the evening sun, creating lots of heat gain in the apartment. This may be good in winter, but not so good in summer. With no screens on any of the windows, and the main sleeping area upstairs, we had to choose between stifling heat or biting mosquitoes - we choose to open the windows and were eaten alive by the bugs at night - 4 nights in a row!
Also, there are no room-darkening shades or curtains, so bring an eye mask, especially in summertime. Did I mention it was on a busy street and sidewalk? Bring earplugs too, if any city noise bothers you.
To top all that off, there is a big construction project going on just behind the unit, with heavy equipment and jack hammering starting just before 08:00. It usually stops by 16:00, so at least the evening is just the “normal” street and city noise.