We enjoyed our stay at Carlos's because of the location. The playground was around the corner, many nice parks nearby, restaurants, shops. It was a very nice area to stay in. We did not like that the apartment was very dark, we always had to have lights on, as there was not enough day light coming through. One side of the apartment faced a closed garage, the other side of the apartment faced a wall that was grown with plants, which was pleasant to look at.
We had a problem with a mechanic blackout curtain, which was covering the only entrance to the balcony. When someone was going to bed, we had to put the curtain down as much as possible so that we could still chill on the balcony, but the nails sticking out from the curtain made it a bit dangerous to go in and out when the curtain is halfway down. Also my little son pressed the "up" button, which rolled the curtain up passed the "stop" writing on the curtain itself. Because of all the nails and whatever else, the curtain got rolled up and would not come out. There was no good safety put on a curtain to prevent this from happening (which can be easily done in an aesthetic way). Carlos told us right away to make an appointment with a curtain repairing company and to deal with them directly and pay them directly based on an approximation of costs of repair, he mentioned that last time the curtain was fixed it cost 50 usd. My husband does not trust approximation of costs from a repairing company, so he spend 2 hours fixing this curtain himself, while getting scratched to blood by the nails that were sticking out on the bottom of the curtain. But he fixed it, and we did not have to waste our vacation time on making appointments, waiting for repair men and overpaying for something that is simple to fix.
What ruined the whole experience was how Carlos treated us after we left. We had to go to the airport with our 6 suitcases and 2 small children. We cleaned what we could, we left some dirty (and I mean some, my husband washed most of the dishes before we left) dishes because otherwise we would have been late for our flight. Carlos send me photos after our departure without any words, just photos of some dishes in the sink, a water bottle that still had some water in it (that's why we left it), a picture of a pot that was not put back in its proper place (:-O)) and a picture of a tiny drawer with playing cards that were just put loosely back in the drawer without being tied together with an elastic. When I asked what is the deal with the pictures, Carlos responded that he sends pictures to every guest after departure to show how well they cleaned up. He said that we did not clean good and we should have done better. I mentioned to Carlos that we paid a 40 euro cleaning fee, with that rate we could have left the apartment a complete mess (which we did not and never do, as I clean myself regularly so our space is always in a beautiful state). Carlos responded the 40 euro cleaning fee is only applicable for the cleaning of the apartment before our arrival.
This approach of Carlos was soooo outrageous, I have never experienced this before through any of my stays anywhere. To be a police to the guests to tell them how well they have cleaned up, while charging quiet a high cleaning fee. And the way he approached me in messages was truly unacceptable, unethical and disrespectful. We spent a whole week at the apartment, we met Carlos when he checked my husband's job on repairing the curtain, and such a treatment says a lot about hosts purpose in renting out a place. I wanted to give 2 stars for this, but decided to go with 3 because we enjoyed our stay minus communication with Carlos.