I would not stay here again, for several reasons, and I would recommend that others not give this host their business.
To be fair, there were elements of our stay that were positive. Simone provided good communication from the start and kindly allowed us to drop our bags off before check-in. The apartment has some thoughtful touches, like plenty of coffee and tea fixins, as well as a couple of snacks and water left for us. The unit has most items you’ll need, including a few things left by previous occupants that can be useful (like food items, sunscreen, etc.). It is located in a nice, quiet neighborhood, which feels safe. The washer and dryer are a godsend. That’s where my positive comments end, however.
The cleaning of the unit left much to be desired. The shower is small and has no type of shelving for personal grooming items. There is only a fabric shower curtain (no liner), and it is covered in black spots at the bottom (mold?) and needs to be replaced. We found a ton of long hair in the shower and in the bed, and since my partner and I both have very short hair, it clearly wasn’t ours. Although the counters and surfaces were clean, there were dishes and pans in the cabinets that had obviously not been washed, and there was a layer of dust in every corner and behind all the furniture. When we arrived, we found damp sheets and towels in the washer and dryer, which would have gotten moldy if we hadn’t dried them ourselves. The fact that clean sheets were sitting in the dryer made me wonder if the sheets on the bed had actually been changed prior to our arrival. As other guests have noted, there was also about a 2” thick wad of lint in the dryer trap, which is a hazard. Since I paid $79 for an “enhanced cleaning” fee, I expected a lot more than this.
If you’re looking for somewhere convenient to get to the touristy sites in DC, this apartment isn’t ideal. It is 14 blocks (.8 mi) from the closest Metro line (NoMa) and further than that (well over a mile) from Union Station. There is a free tram that comes within a few blocks of the unit, but it’s tough to navigate with luggage.
Probably the most difficult issue for most potential guests is that this is a basement apartment that is extremely noisy when the upstairs residents are home - you hear every step the occupants of the main house take. Most nights that we were there, the loud creaking overhead went on until quite late at night. It is very frustrating listening to this above your head for hours on end when you’re trying to relax and sleep.
The bed is fairly comfortable, but very noisy every time you move around on it. This is more of a problem than you think it is, until you experience it. The fact that numerous guest reviews have mentioned this and it has not been remedied is concerning.
Having said all of this, none of this would have made the stay awful until the incident that broke the camel’s back, so to speak. In the middle of our stay, while we were out of the unit, Simone sent me a message that she needed to enter the unit to bring in a piece of furniture. In spite of my expressed concern (and lack of permission), and in spite of my offering an alternative, she entered the unit while we were gone to bring in the piece (which ended up being a sideboard table). I am still not sure why it was so urgent to move this piece into the unit in the middle of our stay, but the fact that this was done at all was highly frustrating to us. This was a breach of our privacy and quite clearly against Airbnb rules for hosts. Like most people, we had private, personal items sitting around in open suitcases and on tables in full view, and I did not expect or want anyone to be in the space we had rented to have access to our belongings. We were not given a chance to either be present for this, or to clean up and put away our private things before the host entered. This experience made me extremely uncomfortable – I felt helpless to stop this host from doing something she clearly intended to do, regardless of my feelings about it.
I would not recommend this unit based on its merits alone, as I’ve described. But the experience we had with this host soured my experience in DC and made me less likely to use Airbnb in the future, if there is an alternative.