Highlights
-very clean and tidy flat
-washing machine was great
-space was really nice
-flat was surprisingly cool given the weather
-location felt local but was still walking distance to things
-close to train station and river
-communication response was great
-check in was good and everyone we communicated with was extremely nice
-water pressure was strong
-well equipped kitchen
-the showers and bathrooms were really nice
-beds were comfortable and I liked the night lights and switches near the beds
Things to Note
-this place is not ADA accessible as you do need to climb stairs to get to the unit
-The door to one of the bathrooms doesn’t open all the way and you have to really force it open in order for it to be useable. This is an issue with the unevenness of the floor since it stops the door from opening. I think the permanent way to resolve it would be to either fix the floor or saw off the bottom part of the door.
-That same bathroom has a shower and you need to be careful when you turn it on or else water will go flying over the wall of the shower and onto the floor because the water pressure is so strong.
-I would not recommend this place for very hot weather. Even though it’s surprisingly cool, if you open any of the bedroom windows you will let in foul odors in from the little courtyards and you will be able to hear all of the neighbors. We had a difficult time sleeping because if we opened the windows it would smell bad or be very loud or if we kept them closed it would become stuffy because there were no fans.
-The top bunk bed is for children only—this is something we were told but I think it’s important to share if there are adult-size people wanting to use all the beds
-Some of the reviews we read said it was a bad neighborhood. There is graffiti but the neighborhood itself doesn’t feel unsafe during the day. The issue we encountered is that at night about 40-50 young men (not exaggerating on the number—it was at least that many) gather in the cross street (Calle dos de Mayo, I think) to hangout and drink. They are not hanging out at a bar, they’re just hanging out on the street drinking and talking extremely loudly. This was during the weekday. It didn’t look like they were doing anything bad but I would not recommend staying in this place if being in an area with a whole lot of rowdy young men is not your thing. I grew up on the south side of Chicago, so I’m used to seeing groups of young people hanging out on the streets but I have never seen this many young men randomly hangout out on a street (except for maybe in frat neighborhoods near universities) and making so much noise that I thought we were above a party or bar. For me the noise was the biggest issue, especially because it was hot when we were there and we were keeping the balconies open—all that noise was very unexpected, particularly since it was every night.