This is my first experience renting an AirBnB unit. Great rental in what I guess is about an 80-year-old building. Apartment was clean, and everything was as advertised. The elevated train line runs only a few buildings away, but with the air unit on and windows closed, we hardly noticed them passing. Communications with AirBnB and the owners before, during, and after the visit were pretty responsive. We will try to rent this apartment again when we return next Spring.
However, our visit was not without minor complications. Because I had read a lot of reviews, I wasn’t entirely surprised when they occurred and had ideas of how to address them.
The first issue occurred as we tried to gain entry to the apartment for the first time. AirBnB sent us check-in instructions a day or two prior to our trip. The pathway into the apartment includes a front courtyard iron gate with keypad, then an inside and outside set of doors through the building foyer with keys, and finally three locks on the apartment door. The iron gate worked as expected. Long story short, we didn’t find the different sets of keys where we were instructed to find them, and the keypad on the apartment door didn’t operate as instructed. After working through a number of combinations of operating the apartment door locks and a couple of calls to AirBnB, we got all three locks unlocked in about 20-30 minutes. It doesn’t need to be that difficult. TIPS: Push and HOLD the Lock/Unlock button on the apartment door keypad approximately 3-5 seconds until the keypad finishes locking or unlocking the door; also, the original doorknob key locks on the inside building foyer and apartment unit doors operate in the opposite direction (clockwise to unlock) than you may be expecting.
The next morning, one of the three electrical circuit breakers for this apartment kicked off while we were operating our hair dryer. Reading a previous review had told me that the hard part of the problem was finding the circuit breakers, and that resetting them was easy. After a thorough search of the apartment, a text to AirBnB obtained their location. TIP: They are in the building basement, which is accessed by a keyed door in the building foyer. After that episode, we turned off the air units and lights to lessen the electrical load while we ran the hair dryer.
I hope this information is helpful.