There are both pros and cons to this cozy basement studio:
Cons:
- This is not a good place to work from home. Took me a while to figure out there was *any* flat surface to work off of (turns out you have to hoist up the Murphy bed to be able to pull out the only flat table surface in the unit). Even then, with the small fold-down table, it's not a very comfortable set up to work out of the unit, with no comfortable chair and only a small table surface.
- VERY noisy, starting at around 5:50 am some weekday mornings, and still very early in the morning on weekends. The description on Airbnb *does* mention that there can be noise, but you have to understand that it's VERY not sound-proofed, and in particular footfalls of the various household members were very loud and continue unabated through most mornings. (During the day as well, but that's less problematic -- though it could definitely be heard on my Zoom calls.) I don't think this was the result of any unreasonably loud activity from the upstairs household, but it appears to be just that the unit is not well soundproofed, and so you'll have a very hard time sleeping beyond 6 am if you're a light sleeper. I was very sleep-deprived as a result for my entire stay. I had earplugs (purchased urgently at the nearby Safeway on my first full day) and it was still really hard to sleep.
- No natural light. The description says it's the "lower level of a home" (and only mentions in the last sentence that it's actually a downstairs basement, not a first-floor unit, which is how "lower level of a home" would most reasonably be understood), but be aware that this is very much a basement studio (if a nicely refurbished one). There are windows, but you have to turn on all the lights on all the time to be able to see. It's also slightly damp as a result of being a basement studio, and there were some small bugs in the unit -- nothing major, but likely the result of being in an actual basement-level studio.
- After spending >$1k for the week's rental, I asked the host if I could keep my carry-on luggage for longer in the apartment on the Sunday that I was leaving so I wouldn't have to lug it around with me all day. The answer was yes... for a $55 fee (because it would have caused a rescheduling of the cleaning staff?). While, of course, a host is perfectly within their rights to deny such requests, I would really have appreciated what seemed to me a very mild accommodation without it being seen as an opportunity for more revenue--since my carry-on luggage would hardly get in the way of a cleaning crew.
Pros:
- Extremely responsive host; you can expect a lot of messages and a typical response time of ~20 mins on average if not less.
- Great location (including next to a Safeway, and close to subway); cute street. Felt normally safe for DC and had no concerns from that perspective. Easy to get an Uber quickly from that location as well.
- Nicely appointed studio (from a décor and appliance perspective). Had an iron and ironing table, which were useful. The laundry setup in general was nice and it's very useful if you're in town for an event.
- There's a small little patio unit in the front, which was a nice bonus since it wasn't mentioned in the description.
- "Check-in"/arrival is very easy, and it's great to not have to worry about keys, etc., thanks to the keypad.
- Kitchenette + full-sized fridge are nice, clean, and useful, and comes with a good amount of silverware and tableware for small meals. You can't really cook there but you can heat something up in the microwave, etc.
- Wifi worked pretty well most of the time -- the occasional glitch on a Zoom call but nothing that really overly impeded my connection. (I was there for ~7 days.)
- Bed was reasonably comfortable. Nothing fancy, given it's a Murphy bed, but acceptable.
- Walkable to the Roost, which had many food options, a nice bar, good outdoor space, etc.
- Very friendly little white cat in the garden about half the time I walked out of the unit!