Nice apartment, great location and views but a bad experience with the host.
I booked this apartment for a group of friends who live in different corners of the world, so we could enjoy a few nights in Prague together. The first group of people to arrive met with Pavel for check-in. He was really nice and accommodating.
The apartment was generally nice and clean, except for the ants crawling in the kitchen into the kitchen cupboards. It has five bedrooms of different sizes, that worked fine for us, ranging from large to small. The two big bedrooms are joined by a stained glass door. The apartment has nice balconies on both sides of the building, a small one and a larger one facing the river, a large one on the other side off the kitchen. The common area has a nice sofa area, and a big dining table. The Eames style chairs seem to be falling apart though, as many have screws loose and could be dangerous if subjected to stress. The wooden boards on the steps in the common area are loose, and should be fixed to prevent accidents.
The location is superb, within walking distance to many attractions, and has great views over the river and the castle.
We did however have a bad experience with the host, starting the first night. We arrived in separate groups, from Europe and America, in the day and in the evening. Once everyone was settled in we decided not to go out that night, as some were tired from a long journey.
We gathered in the common area for a conversation and refreshments. At 11:36 PM we received a message from Martin, saying they had "some complaints from the neighbours regarding noise" and he did not want them to "to call police or giving you fine for breaking the apartment rules first night of your stay" and we should "party outside in a bar".
We were very surprised to hear that, as we were just having a normal conversation before heading off to bed and by no means throwing a party. I expressed our surprise and told Martin we would be mindful to keep our noise level down, as we certainly did not want to be a nuisance to neighbours. We went to bed shortly after midnight.
Our second day was uneventful in this regard, we explored the city, came back to the apartment to freshen up and went out for dinner and drinks.
Our third day we started off cooking brunch in the apartment, and we enjoyed the amazing views from the balcony and some good time chatting in the common area. Shortly before we headed out for dinner, at 7:17 PM, Anna sent me a message informing me that once again they had "some complaints from the neighbours regarding noise" and implied we were partying and that next time they would not give our deposit back (We did not pay any deposit, but apparently sometimes they ask for a cash deposit of 500 euro, a clear violation of Airbnb ToS, as all such transactions should happen on Airbnb).
Again we were extremely surprised, as we were not partying or being noisy by any standard. I expressed our surprise and asked what exactly the neighbours were complaining about.
As we got no response we suspected something was not right. We looked around the common area and found a listening device, on the beam beside the TV. It is magnetically attached, we removed it and googled its markings to find it is some kind of home monitoring system. When confronted with this, Martin confirmed this was indeed the source of their "neighbours" complaint.
So either they were listening in, and interpreted what they heard as a party, or the device gives them some sort of false positive of a party level noise, which is absurd. (Martin later suggested to us the device only measures sound levels, but then maybe it should not be placed next to the TV.)
I think Martin later regretted having conducted himself in this manner, as in his last message he thanked us for having been respectful.
The host should definitely not fabricate noise complaints, but be honest with his guests if he wants to use this kind of monitoring, and employ a more accurate way of monitoring for disrespectful guests. He should also use Airbnb for any security deposits, as it has a reliable dispute resolution system, that is harder to game with fabricated noise complaints.
Overall, the apartment is nice, location great, but host needs to improve his way of business.