This apartment is optimally located if, like me, you are in town to see the city’s museums and historical sites. Even though the metro stop is just a few blocks away (at George Washington University), we scarcely used it. It was a comfortable walk down to the national mall during the day and over to the Kennedy Center for the evening’s entertainment. Trader Joe’s grocery store is less than two blocks making it easy to eat at home. My husband also enjoyed using the nearby gym to which the apartment has access.
The downside of staying in this first-floor apartment (above a small commercial establishment) is the risk of truly extraordinary noise from the apartment immediately above which the host also owns. We rented for 5 nights (Saturday-Wed) and the first of those nights the upstairs neighbors held a loud raucous party to which guests were still arriving at 3 AM and which didn’t start to wind down till after 5 AM.
I was reassured by the host’s response that the noisemakers were leaving and would be succeeded by a quieter guest. The next 3 days were fine but on our 5th and final night, we once again were disturbed by a new group of loud, rowdy 2nd floor guests. The noise included a memorable, hour-long, angry relationship breakup-fight right outside our door. This last bit of drama, starting around midnight, involved a phone conversation so loud that we could even hear the person on the other end!
Between the two of us, my husband and I have stayed with Air B&B at least 40 times and in all kinds of settings. We’ve never encountered anything remotely like this. I don’t know enough about the business model to understand why it’s happening at this particular apartment but I note, in reading the reviews, that something similar happened there just last month.