3 Äpfel Design Apartments

It is an apartment not far from the center of Essen. Apparently all the apartments in the townhouse are rented, with a few in the courtyard as well. The apartment has all the necessary equipment, the kitchen is well equipped, the bathroom as well. The heating is a bit unintuitive, but it works - floor heating in the bathroom and heating panels near the ceiling in the apartment and kitchen. The apartment is clean, the style is nice. The host was responsive before the rental, seemed like a nice person.

The main issue I had is really bad WiFi. There was as I understand a router somewhere in the building and a repeater in my apartment. There were multi-hour phases when the connection was breaking up or was really slow. I stayed there a few days and it was really bad the last two days. The apartment is in the city part of Essen so there is really no excuse for the WiFi being so bad. Another thing is that the beds could have been more comfortable. The bed in itself had a matress and then one more layer on top. It was okayish, but a bit too soft and a bit unstable. But the pillows were definitely too soft. To check-in you had to call the host and then he opened the door remotely. That worked but a traveller outside of the EU without a local simcard could find it a bit expensive and complicated. There was the wifi password downstairs (not very safe), so theoretically whatsapp could be used, but that just seems complicated. Overall I think it would have been better if people got these check-in instructions automatically when they book, and not on the day of arrival, to prepare for that. There were no spare garbage bags in the apartment. I asked for more, the cleaning lady was to deliver them, but they never arrived. Also if you stay longer and want to dump your garbage to the bin downstairs, some of them are locked.

The only thing I like is the bus stop is nearby but the buses came at 30 minute intervals, long wait.

I had to call the host to get him to unlock the main entrance of the building and he did it via the internet. As I didn't have mobile data, it was difficult. Luckily the taxi driver called for me. It was difficult to use the induction stove and the heater in the bathroom was spoilt. The furniture are flimsy. The host is quite a nice fellow but he lives in another city. Nothing like staying in a hotel at the same price, which I did in Dusseldorf and Munich where sumptuous breakfast was included. The prices of accommodation shot up during that period because 87,000 participants, including us convert in this area to attend a seminar in an arena nearby.