We were 3 friends at Marcia's apartment.
The plus points:
1. Place was spacious. 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. Water was hot and shower had good flow.
2. Rooms, kitchen & bathroom were clean. Towels given were clean too.
3. Indoor lighting was sufficient. Some apartments tend to be dark at night, this was not.
4. Location - cannot beat it. Closeby to most tourist hot spots. That was a big draw. Grocery store Pingo Doce is couple blocks away, hardware store for buying adapter for mobile phone charger was right next door (I needed it badly as my charger wouldn't fit the wall plug points).
5. Marcia was a great host. She waited for us to introduce her place, even though it was pouring outside. She showed us around all amenities, showed us hot spots on the map, tips for good restaurants, etc.
Minus points:
1. Shower is a tiny cabin. Water flow is good but inside the cabin type sliding door, your hands tend to bang/bump to the edges..... But then you learn how to manouvre.
2. Flight of stairs to the apartment. Not a big deal otherwise but for older people with heavy bags, can be tricky. Staircase is wide, that's a plus so your bags arent banging along the walls while you climb unlike many places in Europe I've seen.
3. Patio was unclean. Rains didn't allow us to use it anyways, but wouldn't have been able to use even otherwise as it needed cleaning.
Overall we were quite satisfied with the place and shall recommend it to friends and family.