We stayed six weeks in this apartment. During this time we formed a very good idea of its strengths and weaknesses. Some of the key aspects to consider follow.
NOISE
The apartment is exposed to the elevator noise (elevator shaft just next to the apartment), pressure water pipes, and (on weekends) nightlife noise from Chancery square. The background noise level is about 35 db with spikes of 40 dB when the elevator passes in the living room/kitchen area. In the bedroom area noise can be up to 45 dB up until 1 am in the morning on Fridays and Saturdays. I actually measured this noise level values! For reference the World Health Organization says that the background noise upper limit for healthy sleeping is 30 dB.
SUNLIGHT
The apartment has practically no direct sunlight on the Winter months (this is due to bldg orientation and the elevated skyline surrounding it). I clocked 15 min direct sunlight in the early morning. This, makes the living room/kitchen area very dark throughout the day.
GENERAL MAINTENANCE
The carpet is worn out and needs replacement (otherwise pls drop the word "stylish" from the listing). The sofa is also worn out and stained. The window was very dirty when we arrived. We also found the oven extremely dirty. The fridge is very small even for an apartment this size and one of the two shelves is broken, half the space of the freezer was occupied by frost. The equipment in the kitchen limited. The pans are extremely dirty and worn out (we had to buy a new one). The bathroom door needs to be closed firmly (almost slammed) to close.
We communicated with the person in charge about the noise situation (I believe we never interacted with Stefan, at least no one in the chat identified him/herself by that name). We often missed sleep or require to wear earplugs/sound blockers at night. I understand that this would only be a problem for light sleepers (as ourselves!). Eventually we needed to leave early over this issue. The manager, who generally disregarded our comments (apparently we were the firsts to notice the noise) said that we needed to stay an additional month to issue a reimbursement for the rest of our planned stay, which I believe is better than they were required to do (the cancellation policy is strict apparently). We thank them for that! We contacted Airbnb describing the situation and they were able to scratch a few days from the notice period that they were demanding. All an all this has been clearly my worst Airbnb experience after 7 years as guest and host. We still liked the area and the bldg (gym & spa are the highlight).