Several things: firstly, despite the problems described here, the host was extremely attentive and the communication was easy. I know firsthand that this can be rare, so I really appreciated this about Lea and felt like I was heard. I was refunded in full for this stay.
I arrived and felt a little bit uneasy. A lot of the furniture was chipped up and old. It looked like these items had been dragged in from the street. The photos show the furniture brightly lit. It seemed like they were trying to pass off what are clearly just old crappy chairs and tables as being “vintage” but it was a little much and everything was super flimsy. I would DEFINITELY not recommend this apartment if you are a bigger bodied person.
The apartment (with exception to the bathroom which was very clean) seemed to have just been gently wiped clean. There were crumbs on the floor, some rotten grapes in the fridge and someone must have forgotten to run the garbage disposal because it had a strong smell and there were seeds sprouting out of it. The couch had some light staining and the walls were all scuffed up and chipped.
The bedroom had several dead bugs on the floor. I was alarmed because the some of the bugs (I am told these are NOT bed bugs) were even squished and dried to the wood... which was strange. There were no bugs on the actual bed and no indication that the bugs had been there, but several dead ones were found around the post of the bed near the head. This is ultimately what made me leave. I was paying over 800 dollars total for my stay and while I completely understand it’s a city apartment and it’s completely unreasonable to expect no bugs or exceptional cleanliness I did not feel comfortable staying there when a similarly priced hotel has better amenities and is kept cleaner.
I don’t know what it’s like on the weekdays, but on the weekends it’s in a BUSY part of town. Adams Morgan is a super cool part of town to stay in. The apartment location is A+. If you’re planning to go out to the bars this place is PERFECT for that. If you’re planning to stay in and it’s a weekend night it’s pretty loud and there were several fights out in front of the apartment that I could hear the details of while I was inside waiting to hear back from Airbnb about whether or not I could leave and be refunded. I don’t mind the noise, but if someone was sensitive to it I would warn against that.
Overall this felt like a cheaply manufactured Airbnb and if the value is what you are looking for it will definitely do. Lea communicated quickly and I was refunded so that they could take a look at the apartment and make sure it was safe and clean. It could easily have just been from a couple weeks of bad cleaning. I have stayed places that I would NOT recommend and this isn’t one of those. I just think you should know these things before determining what kind of value you are looking for.