I've lived in the Chalfonte for a long time and have one of the best apartments. Before that, I had one of the worst apartments. So I think I've seen every side of this place. There are some great things about the Chalfonte and a lot of bad things about the Chalfonte. Let's start with the worst problem, which is well known to everyone who lives here: You pay an awful lot for an apartment building that absolutely cannot handle packages. Package thefts, packages that go missing (for as long as a year!), packages you are never notified about... The list of issues with parcels at this place is astonishingly long and widespread. And management's attitude about it is: "Not my problem. Not my job." If you DON'T ever receive gifts for your birthday or other packages, this won't be a problem for you, so disregard. But if you rely on Chewy, or Amazon or receive gifts in the mail, I can guarantee that it will be a BIG problem. Even though security is clearly the problem here, along with zero monitoring of packages as they come in, if you report a stolen or missing package, management doesn't care, and basically just tells you to report it to the police department -- like that'll work. Never mind that the problem is entirely the result of bad management and lack of oversight. Another problem is that constant turnover of staff. You barely meet any of the employees when a whole new batch gets cycled in, while the old staff is gone overnight. The new ones are usually clueless about everything. In general, if you complain to management about anything, you never know if they will even bother to answer. Recently I asked them for an addendum to my lease that I knew would indicate they had been negligent, they told me it didn't exist. It certainly did. When I found a copy and produced it myself, I was told that they didn't realize I meant THAT document. When I lived in the bad apartment in this building, I had no end of trouble. The worst issue was an inadequate heater. It got VERY cold in the winter, and the management said there was nothing they could do about it. I also had an oven and a refrigerator that caused no end of trouble. Heating issues are widespread in the building, with a lot of people telling me they are not adequately heated in the winter. The pricing from apartment to apartment is crazy, with apartments of wildly different quality renting for similar amounts. Now I have a great, spacious apartment with a wonderful view (for practically the same price), and that's terrific. I do love it. But even in this apartment, the kitchen is the size of a closet. You're backed so tightly into such a small space that it is VERY easy to burn yourself if you try to cook anything. I would definitely avoid renting in the first floor of this building. Because the building was constructed on a steep hill, these apartments are partly underground. Another reviewer described them as dungeonesque, and that's a fair description. They are dank, the floor is loud with construction (all the work is done down there) and there always seem to be all sorts of bugs running up and down the hallway. I will give the Chalfonte absolutely top marks for their maintenance staff. The repair people in this building are PHENOMENAL. They attend to everything quickly, do everything right, and are friendly as can be. The only problem is that that Bernstein keeps cycling them in and out of all their buildings, so just when you get to to know them, they're gone. The Chalfonte is in a great location. It's just amazing how many bus lines we're on, two Metro stations are within walking distance (if you like walking) although not that close, and you have access to Mount Pleasant, Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights. But that is true for MANY apartment buildings in this neighborhood, and it just seems like Bernstein, the company that manages this building, has a slumlord mentality. It's been said in other reviews that their idea of upgrading an apartment when someone moves out is just to sloppily paint over everything, and this is true. And how long will the paint and bathroom finishing last? Not long. The paint was peeling off horribly in my shower for years, and they told me that they could only fix it if I could guarantee that I would be out of the apartment for more than 48 hours. So I finally found a time when I could move somewhere for a few days, and they fixed it. Sort of. They refinished the tub but completely forgot to refinish the soap dish next to it or repaint the wall. It was another year before I could set it up for them to do the whole thing all over again. The job was good the second time, though. I do like a lot of things about living here, but I have to say the quality of life is getting worse, not better, as the years go on. We recently had to form a tenants' rights group because people were being overcharged for rents and because of other problems. It's sad. They charge luxury rents, but you will not get luxury treatment. read more

The Chalfonte is a wonderful place to live for absolutely anyone!! I have lived at the Chalfonte for over 2 years and never once had a problem with this building. Not only is the leasing office and maintenance staff incredibly kind, but the units are gorgeous with so much character. I have truly loved living here and felt lucky to call this place my home. The location is fantastic and is walkable to an array of stores and entertainment options, as well as the busses and metro system. Not only that but I've never EVER had a pest problem - which is rampant in other DC units I've inhabited in other buildings, but not here!! Any time I've needed something fixed, they're there the very next day to make it right. It's 100% worth it to live here. Pet friendly, nice neighbors, overall very quiet and peaceful (along with a fitness room, pet potty area outside, and Rock Creek Park right there) - what more do you want? Couldn't recommend it more. read more

The Chalfonte Apartments - Apartments Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

See all

Management and maintenance are responsive to emails and work orders. They're also communicative about repairs that are happening at the community. Only complaint is that if you live on the bottom floor the trash rooms stink but that's to be expected. read more

My time at the Chalfonte has been above and beyond what I expected with my first DC apartment. The individual units have lots of character, and management has been super friendly and helpful. The gym in the building is also in great condition and very nice to have. For the price, I do think it's worth it! read more

There are some good things about the Chalfonte: the workout room, location, and the friendly maintenance man. I lived in the building for over three years. During that time, everyone in my hall had turned over twice in each apartment as did the front desk staff. Each time I would email a work request, the employee had left. The water was constantly shut down several times a month for maintenance. Though in a good location, on early Saturday and Sunday mornings expect to hear drunkards stumbling back to their cars, verbal fights, and being woken up every so often. This article was published in the spring of 2014, shortly after this incident, several of the tenants moved out. http://www.popville.com/2014/03/dear-popville-anyone-happen-to-know-what-happened-at-the-chalfonte-on-argonne-place-sat-night/ Also, note the street, Argonne Place is located on a fire lane and fire trucks go down the street several times a week. When viewing the apartment, I asked Mr. Luis Morales (former employee) if this was a fire lane and he flat out said no... I left my bike in the communal/key fob locked bike storage. Much to my surprise, an anonymous/fellow Chalfonte resident stole my back mud flap rutter and swapped seats. I brought this up to the desk clerk and she could've cared less about my complaint. As we were moving out, we placed the city permit signs to not park where we would park the moving truck (e.g. Argonne Pl). That Saturday night, some random people actually cut off and stole the signs, so when we woke up the Sunday morning, we had to call the police to ticket the vehicles, which added an hour and half to our move. It created some last minute drama to move out of the building. One thing I am disappointed with was the administration. The building manager ignored my inquiry emails about my rental deposit whereabouts. I had to inquire with the Bernstein accounting office. My rental deposit check was 20 days overdue (they forgot to add pet deposit fee) and I had to physically go the accounting office to pick up the check. The check had been sent twice and they didn't pay attention to detail (e.g. NE not NW). All and all, I would not recommend. read more

The Chalfonte Apartments, managed by Bernstein Management, are great. I have lived here for six+ years and though I admit to be looking forward to moving into a newer building, I am sad to leave the Chalfonte. Located near the heart of Adams Morgan, one of Washington DC's most exciting neighborhoods, the Chalfonte has a location that is almost perfect - walking distances to dozens of great bars and restaurants and 10-15 minutes from downtown Washington. A restored former French hotel, the apartment building has a lot of personality, though I will say that if you don't like old buildings, you may not like the Chalfonte (or most apartment buildings in Washington DC for that matter!!!) The staff of the Chalfonte are also great. Maintenance requests are responded to promptly and the service is generally performed with a smile. Overall, I would highly reccomend this apartment building for anyone looking to move! read more

Bernstein has friendly, great service. Any problems are taken care of immediately. The Chalfonte's common areas are really well maintained and (most importantly) CLEAN. No idea what all these complaints are about roaches. Every building in DC has roaches from time to time but Bernstein is super efficient in calling terminators and we haven't seen one in more than a year. We thought we would live here for a year or two and we are now at 4.5. Highly recommend! read more

dungeonesque complete with roaches, rats, screaming homeless guests, and washers and dryers that actually make your clothes infinitely more filthly. fact: someone gets trapped in the elevators like once a month, which should be embarrassing for management, but they seem used to the disarray. the staff can be helpful and friendly, which makes it tolerable. 1st floor smells like a morgue before refrigeration was invented. roaches roam the halls day and night read more

I would personally disagree with most of Monetya's review. While the quality of the work and the repairs is not always the best, in my case (living here 2+ years), they have always been instantly responsive to any problems that have arisen with our apartment. And more times than not, the repair is adequate enough to solve the problem. Besides the repairs, the Chalfonte has a fairly new gym space in the basement, which has both cardio and weightlifting equipment. Also, the Chalfonte is perfectly located - close to Adams Morgan, Mount Pleasant, and Columbia Heights. Ultimately, although the building is on the older side (as many buildings in DC are), I would definitely say that the pluses far out weigh any of the minuses. read more

My partner and I have lived in the Chalfonte for one year. We are overall very satisfied. The good: We love the location - close to the metro, grocery stores, restaurants, parks, etc. The building is a beautiful old pre-war building that is in pretty good shape. We pay $1730 for a 700-square foot one bedroom on the second floor. The apartment itself is nice but has no frills. We have nice plaster walls (very sound proof), large rooms, high ceilings, nice wood floors, and fairly new windows. We don't have a dishwasher or laundry in unit, but there's a laundry room (and basic gym) in the basement. AC is not central, we have window units. The building staff are very friendly and very responsive. Maintenance requests are acknowledged and addressed within 24 hours, if not sooner. The not so good: The building uses inefficient lighting in the apartments (incandescents/halogen bulbs primarily), and you can't remove the window ACs in the winter, which makes for very drafty windows. We asked the maintenance crew to seal the windows with the AC units in them to reduce drafts. If the management company spent a little time and money to properly seal the windows with ACs and install high-efficiency lighting, they would definitely see the payback in their reduced heating and electricity bills. There is a persistent roach problem. We are very good about not leaving food or dishes out, and we have a cat who is highly entertained by the roaches and keeps them at bay in our apartment, but we do see on average about one per week. The washers and dryers in the laundry room are also pretty old and inefficient, and I don't think the washers clean clothes too effectively. Parking is difficult in the neighborhood. Good luck finding a spot at peak times (weekday evenings) that's less than a half mile away. TL;DR: You definitely get what you pay for at the Chalfonte - most apartments are priced below market-rate for the neighborhood, and it's definitely a no-frills place. However, that is fine for me and my partner at this stage in our lives (no kids, late twenties, easy-going). For now, the good outweighs the bad, and we foresee living at the Chalfonte for the next year at least. read more

I've lived in the Chalfonte for about a year now and the best I can say about it is it's not a dump. Its proximity to the Metro and to various attractions in Adams Morgan/Columbia Heights, excellent as it may be, is a matter of circumstance and says nothing about the Chalfonte's business or management philosophy. Renting a small studio will cost you somewhere around 16,000 dollars a year, and it goes up from there. While I don't begrudge any business making money, it is irritating that they seem to reinvest as little of that money as they possibly can in property maintenance and improvements, even when it is in the interests of both the renter and landlord. Here are a few examples: The old toilets waste water, not using LEDs in the hallways means wasted electricity, the old appliances (e.g., air conditioner, refrigerator) waste energy, and so on. This slumlord mentality is clearly seen in that improvements or fixes are not even designed to last the length of your lease. When I moved in they "remodeled" the bathroom, which consisted of painting everything, including the tile. The paint started peeling off the tile in about six months. The "refinished floors" looked like they hadn't even been swept before the finish was applied as there was hair and garbage stuck in the finish. The kitchen cabinets don't have knobs. Old cable/telephone lines are never removed, they simply paint over them. All of this speaks to a slumlord mentality where the management company seems to feel that they are in some sort of adversarial relationship with their tenants. Building-wide notices about rules and problems are mostly centered around the tenants causing problems with trash disposal or maintenance issues. Additional rules are made with threats of eviction if they are not followed. While I understand the need for rules, many of them seem to be arbitrary and poorly conceived. For example, you see those wood floors in the pictures but they don't tell you up front that you are required to cover 80 percent of your floor with rugs. Why don't they just tell you that if you damage the floor you pay for it? Does there need to be a rug rule? To sum it up, The Chalfonte is one of those places that you move into and immediately begin looking for a better place. They have priced their apartments at the point of making you irritated but not quite motivated enough to move until you find something that you're sure is better. read more

Unfortunately, Eric B.'s 1/8/14 review and all others that mention roaches were spot on. There are roaches galore! I must say that the leasing staff is great and extremely friendly. The location is wonderful. The units are older, but they look relatively nice. However, the roaches overshadow the good things about the building. I saw not one, but TWO roaches in the unit they were showing to prospective residents! I'm glad they don't try to hide the problem, but they really need to start spraying the entire place daily or make a drastic changes to exterminate the roaches and seal off any cracks or holes to keep them out of the building. There is an awful smell throughout the first floor of the building and in the laundry room. It smells like something died. Also the hallways are not very well lit, especially on the first floor. If you're fine with having a roach crawl in your ear, give this place a try. read more

We lived here for 3 years and really enjoyed it! The location is absolutely perfect - in the midst of Adam's Morgan, Mount Pleasant, and Columbia Heights, yet on a quiet tree-lined street. The staff are very friendly and helpful, and the building is always working to ensure that the buidling is excellent condition by retouching paint in the hallways, etc. There is a great gym - it's small but clean and has TVs and lots of lights - the only one I've seen of its standard in the older buildings of DC. I lived in a large studio first and then moved into a one-bedroom, both were larger than average with lots of light. The kitchen are a bit small since it's a old buildling (built before the open concept craze). Overall, a great place to live and enjoy DC. read more

I've lived in this building for over a year and have generally liked living here. The main reason I'm moving out is because there is a horrible roach problem. I read about the roaches before moving in and thought maybe because some of the reviews were from a year before I moved in, I thought maybe they had dealt with the problem. Before I get more into the roach problem, I want to say that I really did enjoy living here. It's PERFECTLY located. Seven minute walk to AdMo, 10 min walk to Columbia Heights Metro, 5 minute walk to Mt. Pleasant and just 3 minutes from 16 street and the S Metro buses. While they are good at responding to general maintenance requests, when there were bigger issues, like the Storm Sandy damage and water leaks, it took them forever to get around to fixing it. I've had plenty of packages delivered to my door and haven't had anything go missing. They also accept cats - and I have one, so that's good. Now about the roach problem. When I moved in last year, end of September, I did see a couple of roaches in the kitchen. They sent the Pest Management guy, who comes every Thursday, to treat my apartment for two weeks in a row and I never saw them again. Beginning in July of this year, the roaches started to reappear and up until now (late October), I continue to see them. Iv'e had the Pest guy in my apartment at least 5 times and absolutely nothing has changed. Luckily, they stay mainly in the kitchen, but, they are all over the kitchen. I have to put everything except unopened can food in the fridge. I have to wash all of my dishes prior to using any of them because they roaches have taken over my kitchen cabinets. Every time i open up a drawer, there are roach legs and other body parts lying around. As a result, I never leave any dishes in the sink or any water - so it's not coming from anything I'm doing in my apartment. It's a building wide issue. So the bottom line is, if you can deal with tons of roaches 4-5 months out of the year, then move into this apartment building, you'll really really enjoy living here and the location is great. read more