Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to meet the host in person. I arrived earlier than planned, I requested an early check-in, however, the host allowed a 30min early check-in. The housekeeping was still working when I arrived. It was good to have her still there, so she could explain how some of the things work in the house.
The apartment is nicely located, very close to the train station, and the lake area, UN is few stops away— making movement very easy.
There are two rooms in the apartment, but one of them is locked all the time (until you pay an additional fee), a kitchen with a table and 4 chair and other necessary tools. No sofa available in the apartment, so you would only have the chairs in the kitchen to use or lie down on your bed.
However, an issue is that a club is just downstairs with a door towards the apartment stairways, and two other doors towards two sides of the apartment (you got windows on both sides)— the club has no proper soundproofing/ absorbing done. On weekend nights it gets noisy until 3am, even later. I joked with the club owner, with my showay’a showay’a Arabic, telling him: “you charge people a fee, and I enjoy your live music for free at the apartment.” He promised taking care of it, but I said I will be gone by then.
The coffee machine wasn’t working when I arrived, but it was quickly replaced after the mechanic tried fixing it. There was coffee, sufficient for 2-3 day of my week long stay. It would be good to have additional coffee either placed by the host, or brought by the guest.
The bathroom sink clogged, I reported to the host, she said it will be done, but when I returned in the evening it wasn’t fixed, I reported again, and went out for dinner, but glad it was taken care of when I returned.
The apartment would have an odors, and you would need to keep the windows open for sometime to get it refreshed.
The host is a little slow responding, but very helpful in general. Overall the stay was a good experience, as all my other colleagues were staying in the same area, it wouldn’t take us much time to get together, or get to the conference at the UN early.