The only good thing about this accommodation is the price if you need a place to stay longer term. The whole building has an odor, rooms are very small (as listed), the tap water tastes and smells odd, the location is quite noisy since it’s on a busy road. The building is adjacent to a convenience store where there is always a group of loiterers hanging out. The listing states that the host will meet you for check-in, but the host (John) sent me his number and said to call him instead. He verbally directed me over the phone on how to retrieve keys from the lockbox. Upon entering my room, I discovered a cracked window & a mattress worse than any cheap college dorm mattress.
Host can be unpredictable with communication. A couple times I messaged him and instead of messaging back he thought it appropriate to appear in the apartment and knock on my door. When he would come into the flat, he wouldn’t notify anyone in advance. The first time this happened I had no idea who was in the apartment or who was knocking on my door. A second time, I heard movement in the kitchen while I was working in my room, and then heard him going to each door and knocking on it. A little less productive than messaging someone, if you ask me.
The AC control panel on the wall is encased in plastic and locked, so tenants can’t make any adjustments to the temperature settings. My room was hot during the day and freezing at night.
Apparently there is a cleaner (there’s a rotation of 3 of them) that comes once a week, but I didn’t expect this, since the listing states a cleaner comes once a month. John (host) doesn’t alert any tenants when the cleaner will be coming (since it’s a different day and time each week) and when I asked him to let me know, he answered with “I don’t tell anyone”. One of the cleaners spent about an hour in the common areas of my flat, and when he left, everything looked to be at the same level of dirtiness. This cleaner in particular was anything from professional: he asked if I was married, if I wanted to go on a date with him, and he asked for my number. Aside from taking out the trash (which tenants are supposed to do anyway), I couldn’t see any signs that a cleaner had been in the building.
The fridge and freezer never get emptied when anyone moves out, so they were both packed when I moved in.
Additionally, no one is alerted when a new tenant moves in, which led to a scary “hello” moment between a tenant and myself shortly after I moved in; she had no idea anyone was moving in and I scared her.
One final thing: there was a shooting right in front of the building (9/14/2022) which resulted in the entire street section to be roped off. It was difficult to get in and out of the building since it was technically in the restricted zone and I had to have police permission every time I wanted to enter and exit.
Overall, I’d recommend renting elsewhere if you need a room for a couple months in DC.