This apartment looks exactly inside as the pictures. It was very clean and the check-in process was easy. There is an elevator to the second floor where the apartment is, which is not stated in his listing and is a nice perk, especially because I have bad knees. It's in a good location not too far from the beach and the view over the water and sunsets were awesome! When the drain stopped up in the tub the first time we used the shower, he came the next morning to fix it. Those were the good points.
Now for the not so good...the balcony is not private as it states in the listing - all that separates each balcony and walkways to the elevator and stairs - is a flimsy see-through railing that someone could easily climb over so no privacy at all. I felt I had to lock the sliding glass doors at bedtime. I had asked him about Spring Break parties and he assured me it’s a quiet place. Unfortunately, that was not the case, maybe it was the time of year. Other guests were smoking (blowing in our door) and playing loud music on the balcony next door until the wee hours of the morning and when I let the host know the next day and asked him if he would contact management, he told me there isn’t anyone for him to contact, call the police if it happened again. I was there to vacation for a week, I don't live there and don't feel it should have been my responsibility to manage neighbors. The noise happened several nights in a row but I didn’t call anyone, I tried to ignore it and it got a little better on weekday nights. In addition, a smoke alarm from another unit was going off for two straight days and when I asked him to talk to someone to get it fixed, he ignored my message – no reply. I took that as he didn’t want to deal with it, so I was on my own. Another guest in a different unit finally complained to a man that was cleaning the decks and he got someone to shut it off within an hour. I didn’t get to enjoy the balcony while I was there due to all the noise and smoking.
I left the place very clean (no check-out instructions), made sure the dishes were washed and took the trash out when I left.