The Good. The apartment has been remodeled, is nicely furnished and well stocked.
The Bad. The apartment is not secure. There is a coded lock on the outside door, but there is a second door that leads to a common stairway and hallway that is shared with the downstairs apartments. It’s an interior door with a basic turn lock. Anyone from downstairs could enter your apartment with minimal effort.
The apartment is loud. There is a lot of street noise and a train whistle blew at 12:45 a.m. and it sounded like the train was coming through the apartment. There is also a lot of noise that comes from downstairs. A family was staying downstairs while we were there and their child started running back and forth yelling before 7:00 am. The owner contacted them, but the noise never stopped. The next morning, we heard a whooshing noise in the living room and discovered it was coming from a large vent, hidden by a painting. The vent leads to a bathroom downstairs and we were hearing a blow dryer. We could also hear every word that was said in the bathroom.
And the Ugly. We booked this apartment the night before our arrival date. After booking and paying the rental, fees and security deposit, we received a document stating that we had to provide copies of the driver’s licenses of all adults staying in the apartment. We sent a copy of my husband’s ID and then had second thoughts about giving complete strangers our personal information. We let the owners know we were uncomfortable sending a second ID. They said they totally understood but wouldn’t change their policy. I said since we are uncomfortable with your policy, and you won’t modify it, we should probably look for a different rental. They said that was absolutely fine. Oh, but they would be keeping ALL the money we’d paid, except for the security deposit and cleaning fee, because they have a “no cancellations” policy. The owners certainly can make up whatever rules they want, but those rules should be disclosed in the listing, which they weren’t. The whole thing felt shady and coercive especially since all fees and a security deposit had been paid and providing copies of IDs wouldn’ give the owners any relevant information unless they are visually screening renters. We have rented dozens of times through VRBO and have never been asked to provide IDs. We also have never been asked to meet the owners to get the door code, which is what these owners asked. Neither of these are a VRBO requirements.