This is a beautiful apartment, reasonably priced, in a good location near a station for getting into town. On paper it's perfect.
I'm sorry to say we had a terrible stay, and that's because the floors and ceilings are so thin that you can hear everything going on above and below you. When we arrived at 4pm our downstairs neighbours were yelling, and much later I was awoken at 4am as they came in from a night out, loudly talking and slamming doors. On our second night they were partying so loud we could hear them in entrance hall of the building.
We didn't stay a third night.
Our host refused to refund us the night, we didn't use, because they said we should have told them about the noisy neighbours. We didn't mention it, because we reasoned there was nothing they could do about it, but we later found out the downstairs flat where the noisy party were staying is owned by the same Airbnb management company as the apartment we were in, and we were told if we'd let them know about the noise they could have said something. But how were we to know the company we were renting through owned all of the flats? It's nothing something I would ever think to ask. And who's to say the neighbours would have responded. Because we didn't assume they were able to directly contact a noisy neighbour, they refused to refund us a third night that we were unable to use. We shouldn't have had to pay for the first night either, as I only slept for half of it.
The simple fact is, this property shouldn't be on the market. You might get lucky and not have any guests staying below or above you, but if you do, be prepared to hear anything they do. My wife and I sleep with earplugs, and I was still woken up by the group downstairs. Even if they weren't noisy, the building is just not built well enough. My wife could even hear them snoring through the floor. It's such a waste of a brilliant space.
We were in Manchester to celebrate our 10th anniversary, and while we had a great time out, I didn't sleep properly and the stress of not knowing if there would be a loud party downstairs or not when we got home put a dampener on the weekend.
The only reason I'm not giving this place 1* is because the host was very helpful when we locked ourselves out of the apartment the second night. Luckily we were able to stay with friends and the host organised someone to let us in the morning after, once they had read our messages on Airbnb. I'm very glad we didn't stay that night - the noise we could hear from inside the building while we tried to get in (from the group partying downstairs) was crazy loud - pumping music, yelling, having a proper party. There was no way we could have gotten any sleep that night, so it was just as well we stayed with friends. But credit where it's due - though they weren't able to help us get in, as it was too late for them to read our messages, they did everything they could.
A real shame: this is a beautiful property, really well-maintained, and in a great location. But it's just not fit for purpose - unless you can sleep through really loud noises, you just won't be able to get a proper rest.
It shouldn't be on Airbnb. If you can sleep through anything, it's a genuine bargain; if not, it's a huge waste of money.