We enjoyed staying at Elie’s Gem apartment. The Gem is actually the basement of Elie’s home which he has remodeled beautifully. The apartment is cozy and comfortable though at times you do notice noise and movement from the main house above. Elie obviously takes good care of all details; furniture, fixtures and kitchen amenities were squeaky clean. We especially appreciated the large walk-in shower. He has framed notes and suggestions hanging through out the apartment to help guests with light switches, tv controls, heating controls, etc. Very thoughtful. Also thoughtful is that he makes two keys available to guests automatically; we usually have to ask for the second key.
The Gem is just steps from a large green space, the surrounding homes and streets are very cute for casual walks, there’s a large grocery store and Multnomah village within 15min walk away. Transit buses were a little challenging to figure out from this location and there is no metro stop nearby, but we actually had no problem finding cheap parking in all the places we went while in Portland.
When we arrived we discovered Elie had removed the stove and ventilation. He mentioned something about permitting so I’m not sure if this is a permanent change. We were unhappy since we cook most our own meals and not having these was a big negative for us. He did provide a nice, dual hot plate but after using it the first night we decided not to do so again because no ventilation.
Elie is one of the few AirBNB hosts to meet us in person. He was a nice man and offered us suggestions and help if we needed anything. He answered immediately when I asked different questions. We recommend Elie’s Gem apartment.