Positives:
- Nicely furnished apartment, clean
- Nice view
- Wifi works fine
Negatives:
- apartment is in the 4th floor with narrow stairs with no lift
- Poor isolation. Noise from upstairs and same floor neighbours
- Noise from the numerous bars and restaurants just below the flat
- Mouse in the flat. Didn’t mind it but minded the noise it did at night
- Extremely poor communication with the owners:
- Lack of safety. The owners broke into the property while I was still legally tenanting the flat
Poor communication:
- This is clearly a business for them and there is no human touch
- I checked the morning before giving the owners more than 24 hours to prepare the flat and they confirmed to me that check in would be at 2pm
- The night before they sent an abrupt email stating verbatim “If you have not informed us of your arrival time, we cannot guarantee that the cleaning will be finished when you enter the apartment. No complaints about the cleaning will be accepted. We […] urge you to inform us of your check-in time so that your apartment is ready for your arrival.” I had informed them the day before the time of my arrival and found that email unnecessary agressive and bullying.
- The day of my arrival I had to wait for one hour and a half, with no one responding to my messages and calls. Someone eventually showed up 1.5 hours later at 3:30pm and was able to check in
Lack of safety:
- Up on my arrival the morning of check out I found someone in my apartment using the bathroom. This occurred before the stated time of departure which was at 11am. All my valuables were in the flat.
I would advise the owners to think less business and be a bit more human when dealing with visitors. The whole point of the airbnb community is to make the experience personable and friendly. Otherwise one can stay at a hotel.
I hope that this leads to improvements in the future.