This was overall a very bad experience for me and my wife.
The biggest problem was simply that what is advertised in no way matches the reality
Firstly, let me make it clear that this is not really someone’s private apartment but one of a series of many (50+) apartments managed by a company called Estadia Carioca.
You will not get personalized service and you should expect having to communicate with different employees that work for this company.
We ended up leaving 7 days early and received a refund from Airbnb for those days. I think that says it all. I don’t think the company deserved any of our money but in the end, I was too stressed out and upset to push for a full refund and accepted what was offered.
I’ve laid out the details step by step below. I hope it helps some of you.
1. Booking and check- in was quite good, communication was fast and we were able to check in 1 hour early. We were met by a guy called Eduardo. That was about the only good thing.
2. Location is accurate and Leblon is a great place, the apartment is 200m from the beach. However, the street is very noisy and due to the old and dilapidated air conditioners, you can hear all the noise from the street coming through the air conditioners eve though all balcony doors are closed.
3. After arrival and upon closer inspection, there were many ants in the kitchen. I immediately contacted the employee who was laissez faire and suggested that if there was no spray, we could buy some. That was Eduardo. I bought the spray and had to clean the kitchen after spraying thoroughly with insecticide.
4. Upon closer inspection we found the following issues which we reported on the second day to Eduardo with photos included:
a. Unopened condom in wrapper behind the TV bench
b. Broken couch with suspicious looking stains all over it
c. Broken coffee machine (resolved by other employee Felipe after too much communication on the second day)
d. Broken induction cooking plate meaning we could bot prepare our own food. (resolved by other employee Felipe after too much communication and back and forth on the second day)
e. No oven or toaster existed even though this was advertised in the listing
f. No daily cleaning even though this was advertised in the listing
g. Bedside table in very bad condition with holes on top and bedside lamp that did not work
h. Disgusting fridge seal with black mould and food pieces inside the seal
i. Dirty stained walls with cobwebs
j. Bathroom cabinet with broken door
k. Bathroom door that made a terrific noise when opened or closed with mould and damp damage
5. I reported the issues but only the coffee machine and cooking plate issues were fixed. The other issues were ignored and Felipe made an excuse for the state of the apartment saying the cleaner or the person that fixes things was away for Christmas. No cleaning was offered even though the listing mentions daily cleaning.
6. Communication was generally slow and we would get a different person each time we reached out.
7. I wish I asked for a full refund because this company is a disgrace and treated us with contempt. The individual employees were nice enough but only addressed 2 out of 12 issues.
8. Please spend the extra money and either stay in a hotel or an AirBnB place where the host is not a large and incompetent real estate management company.