Our experience with Gloria's Airbnb was a bit of a mixed bag. Overall, the location is certainly 5-stars, however the comfort and convenience fell short of our expectations.
While Gloria was very responsive, we feel that that is where the hospitality ended. It seemed that not a lot of thought went into the experience of the guests who would be staying in her unit.
The kitchen was not well appointed: there was not a single non-stick pan for us to use and we had to purchase our own paper towels so that we could cook. We also needed to purchase our own tissues.
We were provided only one set of keys, which proved challenging as there were two of us staying in the unit. We needed to coordinate our schedules so that we could be sure that neither would be locked out. From a security perspective, we didn’t feel comfortable leaving the keys hidden in the hallways as suggested.
Perhaps the biggest challenge was the narrow, metal, spiral staircase that one must climb with luggage to reach the bedroom and bathroom. There was a door on the 2nd floor that seemed to lead to the main stairwell of the apartment building, however it was padlocked from the inside of our unit. It would have made life so much easier were we able to use the main, wide, not steep stairwell. We really struggled to get our luggage upstairs.
The building was undeniably beautiful and in a wonderful location, just a short walk to the North Dupont Metro station. However, with the beauty of a historic building also came some downsides.
We followed Gloria's instructions to a tee, going out of our way to be very quiet so as to not disturb her neighbors, however the walls were paper thin. We could hear the upstairs neighbor coughing while in our bedroom, we were awoken as soon as they scooted their chair across the floor each morning. We could hear a baby crying in the unit beneath us. The windows were also very poorly insulated so that we could hear the conversations of the folks who walked by. We were hoping there might be a fan we could plug in for white noise but did not find one.
Re: the neighbors - it was very clear they were unhappy that there is an Airbnb unit in their building. We went out of our way to only whisper in the hallways and to walk very lightly, however when we were leaving the apt. one day, we overheard a neighbor saying "I wonder who they've got staying up there this time?" We really felt uncomfortable and unwelcome.
The unit was also marketed as "luxury," however we did not find that to be the case. The couch was stained, the upholstered chairs upstairs were also stained, and the trash bins in both bathrooms didn't even have liners in them. This did not meet our expectations, especially given the cleaning fee that was charged, which was significantly more than one night’s stay.
Overall, the unit is charming and the location, exceptional, although it is somewhat impractical and lacks some creature comforts that could easily be addressed.