Unfortunately, I can not recommend this host. We travelled from a great distance and had a planned itinerary. Our contract check in time was 2 pm and we had booked a train to arrive at this time. My first great cause of concern occurred when the host, Alex, asked if we could change our train ticket to arrive later since he would be unable to accommodate our check in time. This, of course, was not possible for us. I suggested that he leave a key for us with the doorman or perhaps send someone else to meet us. On a positive note, he agreed to send his mother and said he would meet us after to show us house features. Despite this, he suggested it would be better for us if we simply changed our ticket. We did not change our ticket and did meet with his mother who did a good job orienting us given the language barrier. She told us, however, that Alex was very busy and could not meet us later on. This was perfectly okay since we assumed everything was in operational condition. Alex did suggest that he would meet with us the following day but only at a time that suited him. This was very difficult for us as we had excursions planned and could only meet in the morning which he could not accommodate. The next morning, the hot water was not operational. It had not been turned on. In fact, even the fridge had been unplugged showing there was little preparation for our arrival. We called Alex and he did not offer us a solution and was unable to come and fix it. He was not very empathetic to the fact that we were all taking ice cold shower. He did say that he would come that afternoon at 2pm to fix it. We stopped in the apartment to grab a few items at 4pm. The water issue had not been resolved. We sent him a message asking about it and he then told us it was not very convenient for him to come and fix the problem and tried to guide us on how to turn on the gas. In Canada, we have don't have this kind of a gas system and we were uncomfortable playing with the gas switches. He made a joke about Canada not having switches or buttons. At this point we were running late and asked him to please fix the problem. It was clear that he did not want to, so we fortunately found the switch and turned it on ourselves. We told him we fixed the problem and told him he didn't need to come. Despite this, it seemed he came anyway. This was obvious since after using the washroom, I found the toilet seat up and knew that someone had obviously been there. That was a little eerie. On a positive note, the apartment was well located. You have to be prepared to go up...