The apartment was exceptionally clean and new giving the first impression that nobody had ever stayed in it before. However there were some issues.
We had an initial bad impression because the instructions to unlock the apartment using the electronic keypad did not work and the host was not reachable. We were lucky to find a set of keys and a fob that were left in a cubby but that was not documented anywhere until the host suggested it 30 minutes later.
The apartment is described as being on a quiet corner is laughably inaccurate. It is next to the Howard Theater which has daily concerts, across the street from a community park that feature a DJ spinning tracks, and surrounded by numerous bars. Florida Ave outside the apartment window is frequently choked with cars and horn-honking, frustrated drivers. It’s the opposite of a quiet corner. It’s a hopping corner with ample night life.
We had a number of problems with the apartment and the host took a laissez faire attitude that they would put in a request to the building to fix it. Only one of the issues were fixed in the 2 weeks we were there.
This level of inattention did not seem commensurate with the high-end price of the rental.
So to recap, there were some glitches that detracted from the experience:
- the code on the door to enter was not set correctly on our arrival but was fixed after 2 days.
- the water dispenser in the firdge does not work
- the in-sink disposal is always "on" and the only way to control it is with the breaker switch -- which is off
- the breaker switch labelled dishwasher controls the disposal
- the breaker switch labelled disposal does nothing
- the dishwasher has no power and does not work. Looking behind the dishwasher, it appears not to be connected to power
- one of the light switches by the bedroom door controls one of the outlets which controls one bedside lamp (but not the other side) and there is no corresponding switch at the bed. Thus if you turn off the light switches at the door one bedside lamp and outlet doesn’t work
- the light in the shower is out in our bathroom
- the bedroom TVs are attached to the walls but not plugged in to anything. They are just hung like picture frames without any source of power. The host refused to believe this was possible
- the living room TV turns on but isn't connected to anything. The suggestion was we should download apps and set them up with our accounts if we want to watch anything
- the wifi is unusably poor quality. It was slow and also cuts out entirely fairly often for some reason. Downloads are at 1.67mbps. Uploads at 1mbps. We had to use mobile wireless as a hotspot the entire stay