Ultimately, I would recommend this location, but am only giving 3 stars because of our difficulty at check in and the lack of details in check in instructions.
When we arrived, I’ll admit that our jet lagged and sleep deprived minds were working on quarter speed. But had we had cleared instructions we could have been okay. The whole check in process relies on sticking your hand into a mail slot and retrieving your key from a cup. It’s just a little tea cup and isn’t secured to anything. When I put my hand in, as instructed, I accidentally knocked the cup over and sent the key flying. Commence momentary panic attack.
We were able to use the metal wire from a notebook after unspooling it to create a kind of hook to fish out the key. After several minutes of trying we did fish out the key. But there was no warning about this in the instructions. The check OUT instructions do mention a key, but there’s no “be careful, don’t knock over the cup” in the check in instructions. Just “reach in and the key is on the left.” With all the options available these days, like lock boxes and key pads, there’s just so much that can (and did!) go wrong with this. It feels less than responsible to stick with this low-fi option without giving clear, explicit instructions. Total instructions were roughly one paragraph. all our other check in instructions in Europe were several pages long, with lengthy detailed instructions.
Then, the instructions just say “when you get off the elevator” but don’t tell you how to get to the elevator. There’s a locked door you have to go through, and our addled minds took a while to figure out that the key to the apartment also opens that door. Yes, we figured it out. But it was SO FRUSTRATING to meet yet another challenge without instructions. All it would take is one additional sentence in the instructions.
We made it up to the apartment, and even though Fahd told me we could go right to the apartment when we arrived, his friend was still there cleaning when we go there. Super minor, and he was kind enough to allow us to leave our luggage so we could go find food. But another thing in a chain of things adds up. Especially on no sleep and major jet lag.
Lastly, the shower drain was so clogged with hair that we weren’t able to take full showers. The water in the floor would fill up so fast that it would overflow if we left it on too long, so we could only shower in short blasts. We were able to snake some of the hair our (gross) which helped some, but When you get off a flight all you want is a hot shower. And not having that was rough.
All that said, With more thorough, clear instructions I would recommend this place. It’s close to lots of things we wanted to see, was clean with a comfortable bed, and Fahd responds quickly to messages. And maybe snake that shower drain ;)