Paul’s place is a converted basement with a bedroom with a queen bed, a small bathroom, and a small living/kitchen with a double sofabed.
At the ‘macro’ level it is a comfortable, clean, modern unit a 30-45 minute commute from all the DC attractions and sights (getting around is very slow in DC, the unit is only 45 minutes WALK from the national mall!).
Communication from Paul was great.
Everything the unit had worked properly. Wifi was fast and reliable.
The location has its pluses and minuses, the street is full of 3-storey (2 plus basement) terrace houses – Paul’s is the house at the end of a run of terraces, so he has a side entrance to his basement, which is where Airbnb guests come and go from their unit. The street that the unit is in is quite attractive. It is far enough from the busy street it comes off, for there not to be noise from the busy street. On the minus side, about 5 blocks away there is a park and some streets that seem to have dozens of homeless people in them, and this is a bit offputting.
I think that if you are
• A single or couple, and
• You intend to eat out
Then you will find Paul’s place perfect for you.
We were two singles travelling together (and so using the sofa bed), and wanting to make breakfast and dinner in the unit, and we found this unit really didn’t work quite so well for us.
It is not that the unit is not as advertised, but when deciding to stay at Paul’s it didn’t’ register with us that what we consider basics of airbnbs, always there, would be missing including:
• Nowhere for the user of the sofa bed to unpack to (hence had to live out of the suitcase)
• No dining table (just two Tolix stools and what looks like a bigger stool as a table)
• A few bowls and plates and knives and forks, a saucepan and a frypan but virtually nothing else to help with cooking. No mixing capability, no utensils, no glasses other than a few plastic wine glasses, nothing to strain anything with, etc etc etc. I am sure the assumption is that you will either eat out every night, or just get totally-microwavable somethings
• No real bench space and kitchen storage
The air conditioning for the building runs across the ceiling of the unit and it comes on then goes off at regular intervals including during the night, and this interrupted our sleep sometimes.
We found there to be plenty of footsteps from above during the early evening and the morning when we were up and about, which isn’t a concern, but none during sleep time.
With nowhere to sit and eat unless the sofa bed was used a sofa and the coffee table used as a dining table, you either have to pack and unpack the sofa bed each day, or eat from your lap. The stools are not suitable for eating at, instead I set my laptop up on there and was able to use the laptop effectively there.
What caught us out in the end, are a lot of little things that aren’t mentioned in the listing that we assumed would be there, but weren’t. None on their own are a big deal. But the accumulation makes it seem either
• The assumption is you are a couple and you will use the unit mainly as a place to sleep and shower, or
• Paul is continuing to learn through feedback