Great things:
-AMAZING location. If you want to walk around and see the sights, this is a great place to be - central to everything and you never have to step foot on public transit if you don't want to. There's also a breakfast/lunch place just around the corner (Bean & Leaf) which is fantastic, and an incredibly cozy Irish pub about 2 minutes walk from the front door. There's also a little park just around the corner. Regarding location, we didn't find it exceedingly noisy, but we were visiting during a low season and were on the 7th floor, so that could contribute.
I cannot stress enough how perfect the location is. We took the train from DC and from South Station it was just a 10 minute walk, and a leisurely and safe walk at that. The furthest we had to walk was 20 minutes to a different train station to catch the train to Salem. Additionally, this felt like a very safe area to us. Whether you're coming home at 3am from the Irish pub next door, or leaving super early in the morning for a walking tour, you're safe. It was also a very clean area.
-The view from the apartment is great. The bedroom we had came with 6 windows (roughly) in a sort of half-circular room. You can open the window and get a great view from multiple angles.
-Communication: Basically anything you need at any time, these folks will help you with. We had an issue with our heating needing to be reset, and they were communicative even until past 11pm to help us solve the issue. They gave us some troubleshooting tips until they were able to get the repairs finished (which were the very next day by the time we got back), and communicated every step of the way.
-The entertainment on the TV was pretty good, it was nice to chill out there at the end of the day after walking around.
-The apartment is really spacious for two people, which is great if you have a lot of luggage or are going to be staying for a bit longer. Alongside the spaciousness, the kitchen is really nice to have. All the stuff you need to cook is there, including a microwave and a fridge (for you to store your Cannolis in).
-We didn't make use of the early check-in/late check-out, but we arrived late because our train was delayed and had no problems getting in with the instructions.
-The bed was quite comfortable and massive with two huge reading lights next to it, complete with nice soft sheets.
Could be better:
-The apartment felt a little bit ramshackle: some of the heating vent covers were on the floor, some of the drawers were missing, a door had come off the closet and was laying in the closet, some lightbulbs didn't work (incl. the fridge light), the bathtub squeaked and felt a little unstable, the shower had a very loud high-pitched whine when on, and the hot water didn't last long, and some of the blinds looked a little worse for wear.
-Our heating wasn't working for the first day or two, but this is where the A+ communication rating comes in. I was slow to let them know, as it wasn't super cold at first. When I did let them know, we were helped in the quickest and most professional way possible. Not only that, we were offered extra blankets for the night it was (obviously) too late for a repair person to come by, so that was very kind as well.
-We had a random extra microwave in our kitchen that didn't work, which isn't really a big deal, but of course I tried the one that didn't work first 🤦🏼‍♀️
Keep note of:
-The elevator is old school and tiny, so we only used it to bring our luggage up/down and every other time we came to the apartment, we walked the stairs (great for the glutes, we were on the 7th floor 💪🏻). I noticed some folks in their reviews said it wasn't working when they were there -- we didn't experience that, the elevator worked just fine for us, but I can definitely say that if the elevator isn't working, bringing your luggage up/down would be awful.
-This is probably on me, but I read the listing and thought there was a washer/dryer in the apartment, but there's not :) I didn't need it, so I never found out if there is one in the building, but just keep in mind there is not one in your room so it must be somewhere in the building and you'll have to ask where that is.
-We didn't experience any crazy noise, which could be due to low-season & being on the 7th floor, but this is definitely a busy area and your bedroom has windows all around it, so if you're a light sleeper do bring earplugs. In any case, no noise would shoo me away from this place -- I would just buy the earplugs because it's worth it for the other pros.
-Be mindful of the hot water -- it goes VERY quickly. If there are 2 of you, you'll probably be fine and get 25-35 minutes of hot water showering consecutively, but if there's more of you or if someone is a super long shower person, just know that you'll want to give it some time to heat up again.
Overall: We definitely recommend this place if you're in Boston to see the sights!