The apartment is beautiful and comfortable as in the pictures, and Eino’s team is generally quick to respond to requests, including bringing extra pillows and blankets. But there are a few major drawbacks you should be aware of before booking this apartment.
First, it is not a quiet apartment. The bedrooms are right by the front door and the hallways have a tendency to reverberate. You will hear it loudly anytime people are entering or exiting the building. Doors opening and closing, people talking, etc. One night there were some other guests leaving from an apartment above at 6am. They were trying to be very quiet but it’s just impossible in that building. We also could hear anything happening in the street in front as the bedrooms are right above the street and a child running around in the apartment above. Finally, there was a weird buzzing sound in the walls, like a phone vibrating on a wood table but louder, that would happen every 5 minutes. My husband had to sleep with noise canceling headphones.
Second, the location is a bit bizarre. It’s in the middle of a Chinatown type neighborhood with a lot of Asian grocers, Asian restaurants, beauty salons and a few sex shops. It’s not really a place you are going to want to hang out. It’s only about a 10 minute walk to the old town though.
Finally, there is a very narrow steep flight of stairs to access the apartment. This was the biggest drawback for us as we were traveling with a 3 year old and 1 year old and had two strollers. I had actually written the owner to specifically ask about stairs and was told that the apartment is one the first floor and “there are few stairs”. The misunderstanding is partially mine because I come from the US where the first floor is the ground floor, but “few stairs” is not how I would describe the winding narrow staircase we encountered. We generally can carry the stroller up a few stairs with a sleeping child inside, but here it was impossible to get the stroller up without folding it which meant waking up the kids. Had they been honest, we would not have booked this apartment.
The apartment is also not very child-friendly if you have younger kids. The railing for of the window (it’s a floor to ceiling French door type window) for the room with bunk beds is missing a bar leaving a hole a child can easily fall through! I was deathly scared they would open it and blocked it with the crib. And finally the terrace is decorated with cactus.