Stayed for 5 nights. The photos present the apt looking newer than the apt. presently is. It has wear and tear from I'd say at least around 10 years, the floors have several black scuff streaks, the kitchen counter has a section delaminating from the wall, there is a plaster spot in the living room wall above the TV, there are drill holes in the bathroom from previous mouting plugs, the kitchen appliances look a bit dated. But everything is functional, all the knobs/levers for all faucets are fine, the water is super hot, and the toilet runs well. Lots of wide windows, with equivalently wide horizontal blinds, and they are metal ones not plastic, and perhaps as such, they work and work well, the door locks to the apt work well.
Also functional was the TV and cable, and WIFI, all were reliable during my time.
Kitchen, bathroom, tub were all clean when I arrived. However the floors, meaning the kitchen and living room which are both connected, though perhaps swepted as there is a broom and swifter by the entrace, needed a true honeest wet mopping. There was surface dirt to me, a bit too much, which must have accumulated i suspect over at least a few weeks, I would not be surprised if not more, w/o a wet mopping.
I do push ups every day that's why I noticed. The sofa, also had debris, easily visible from 3 feet away upon first laying eyes on it, not on the arm but on the seating surface, which in my other experiences of an airbnb, should have been dusted off in 5 sconds of effort it needed. It is not a sparkling clean place. There is dust on the frame of electrical sockets, light switches that just convey a sense of this place not being dusted and cleaned overall, for the cleaning fee. The bed was clean, but the bedroom light above would not turn on. Perhaps this was a permant problem because there are multiple stand lights in the bedroom instead.
As I always try to assess the mattress for my reviews, and this one is probably medium. It's not overly soft but definitely not firm. I didn't experience any nearby apartment dwellers being noisy during my stay, however I should note how the bed is situated, the waist level cooling/heating vent on the wall if turned on, blows pretty much right onto you (your face if you're laying on the pillow) about 3 feet from your left, unless you sleep on the opposite end and have your blanketed feet face this air circulation instead. The other benefit would be your ears would not hear the circulation sounds as much.
The other option is to turn off the unit while sleeping if it bothers you. In my reviews I tend to assess other reviews and add items other people may not have, as there are reviews that are not more than a couple of sentences, that doesn't really help much.
The comments of homeless people around is true, every day, every night due to the shelter across the street. 9/10 of the times harmless, but sometimes some of them make loud noises that you can readily hear even on the 6th floor of this apartment with its windows closed. Other times there are wanderers with mental issues that walk very erratically where they suddenly appear to just lunge at you. Just something to keep an eye on.
The two elevators for this building run quite fast, the waits tend to be very brief. They are a bit small, kind of dirty, and appear to be the look of a public building's elevators, like a elevator for a public metro system. The hallways leading to and from each apt, are carpeted, vacuumed with frequency (I heard them) bit narrow and small, low ceiling.
Tons of security cameras in the building lobby, and hallways, so either you're being recorded or watched possibly, so maybe you will feel safe, but nothing visible camera-wise inside the elevators.
Convenience, yes the building may not be on the best looking immediate street of Boylston, but it is still situated pretty center to hitting multiple places for visiting Boston, most notably of course if the theater district directly. Next would be Boston Commons, and Chinatown, then Back Bay shopping, and North End, is reachable on foot too, perhaps 25 minutes for either of both.
Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, CVS pharmacy, all 1-2 blocks away so very convenient to carry back items from these places.
I always like to read about the check in process. This place involves asking for the key at the security desk within the lobby of another building, about 50 feet away. I did that, presented myself and I was asked to fill out a clipboard out of two. I'd no idea what this was. After some confusion after unnessarily signing the clipboard, mostly due to the guard not listening to what I had to say, my first couple of times, he had a little stash of white letter envelopes, none of which was for me. After about 20-30 minutes, including reaching out to the host by mobile phone, I inquired if there was another set of keys, and thankfully the host gave the security desk a phone call and the guard grabbed a set of keys in a cabinet behind him, and escorted me to the building I was supposed to get into.
It wasn't a pleasant ending experience to deal with as I had arrived 2 hours later than I had planned due to problems with my public transportation, I had been commuting for 7 hours instead of 5. Incidentally, the backup keyset did not include the key needed to get passed the front doors of the building, too bad the security guard did not give me a front door key. I realized this the next day after using people to hold the door for me. I went back to the