Unfortunately I am unable to give a positive review of our stay over Christmas at Gloria's place. When my family of five arrived from CA there was no heat on the upper floor of the apartment at all (and wasn't fixed for two days). Gloria doesn't live close by so my husband had to do all the coordination with letting the heat guy in and out of the building.

The house was minimally furnished, almost like someone had moved out and just left the beds and a couple of couches. Acres of empty bookshelves, only one bedside table in all of the four bedrooms, arms of chairs and couches in the living room were loose. There were no blankets on any of the beds (only light summer comforters). Gloria did go out and buy blankets after we asked. There was no light in the narrow, steep stairs between the floors and it never did get fixed while we were there. The apartment was pretty dirty, despite contacting Gloria ahead of time after reading other reviews. The kitchen is very basically outfitted, with mismatched silverware and only a few cooking pots. We also discovered all the smoke detectors tossed in a cabinet and a moldy bowl of popcorn in the kitchen. Lastly, after we left we got a very rude text about putting the trash out incorrectly when we had received no specific instructions on recycling cardboard.

Overall, I cannot agree with the listing description that describes the place as a "luxury apartment". My husband likened it to a grand old lady who had seen better days...

Gloria seemed a bit defensive and it felt like every question we had, or thing we requested, she took personally.

The single plus (and it is a big one) is that the location is very good, near Boston Common and Charles St. restaurants and shops.

Hopefully Gloria will spend some time cleaning, furnishing and outfitting this lovely old place more completely, it really could be fabulous.

We detailed our experience to Airbnb with pictures and they provided us with a nice travel credit. Very good customer service.