Overall I’d say I was disappointed with the apartment. The location is excellent and the host was responsive to issues raised, but the quality of the apartment was lacking and well below what I would expect at this price. The host herself is lovely and was always polite and helpful when responding.
One of the lights in the living room didn’t work work; it seemed sporadically to work and then flickered annoyingly. The internet password was written incorrectly on the router (just one letter wrong, but with a password that’s all that’s needed to stop it working entirely!). The furniture is not very good quality, not very comfortable and is all mis-matched, as is the crockery, which is in a cupboard in the dining area with two broken doors. There were no basic provisions (toilet paper, sugar etc) so I had to make a dash to the supermarket before it closed (I arrived late in the evening) to pick up essentials.
Floors need a good cleaning - it looks like some areas have had bleach on them, but not all, so it makes the floor look dirty when it really isn’t, and the shelf in the shower is missing, so there is nowhere to put toiletries other than the floor, but of course after a day at the beach the floor of the shower is covered in sand, and so now so are my toiletries.
The pictures in the advertisement are accurate, but are artfully taken to not show how tiny the bathroom and kitchen are, and the pictures of the view are with the blinds partially drawn and only of one angle (a good one; there is in fact a view of a small section of the Lagoon and of Cristo Redentor) but the full view is mostly of the backs of buildings (two of which are having construction at the moment). The walls are also very thin, and so it’s not uncommon to hear music from the neighbours.
There were no instructions left for use of amenities; after complaining about the lack of hot water in the shower it became apparent that there’s a trick to getting the hot water to work, but with no instructions I had no way of knowing that, so had 2 days of cold showers first, and the cable TV was entirely unintelligible to a non-Portuguese speaker. The advertisement promised a responsible person to greet me, but that isn’t the case; the doorman gave me the key and I was left to work out the amenities for myself.
The apartment is actually an apart-hotel, and so the building team manage and maintain it. They are very friendly and helpful, but as they have a key (as does the cleaner) I had concerns about security as there is no safe in which to leave valuables such as laptop, camera, passport and money. Consequently I left the ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door for the whole week as I had to make a choice between clean towels (which would mean a cleaner I do not know would have access to my expensive items) or security. I also at one point accidentally opened a neighbours door with my key (I wasn’t paying attention to the door numbers) - it appears that if the door isn’t fully locked any key can open it; not a huge security issue but it’s important to remember to fully lock the door even when inside to avoid others being able to open the door.
I raised each issue with the host, and she was friendly and fast to respond but it’s a shame I had to raise them - for the amount this apartment costs it puts it in the same range as pretty high end luxury places, and it didn’t deliver. I’d say it’s around 30% overpriced for what it is. Not a bad apartment, but not what I was expecting from the advertisement.