BUYER BEWARE: This apartment has a mold problem. We booked it for 13 nights. Within a day we began experiencing runny/stuffed nose, sneezing, itchy throats and headaches. How did we know it wasn't sickness or general allergies? Within about 30 minutes of leaving the apartment our symptoms would clear until, hours later, we went back to the apartment and the symptoms resumed. It was especially bad at night. If the windows were open and fresh air flooded in it was somewhat better, but it's too loud at night to not close the windows so each night we slept there our sleep was negatively affected.
I work in construction and have remediated mold in the past professionally. My guess is the issue is the visible water damage around the main windows facing the sea. Mold requires moisture to grow. That said it could be anywhere in the apartment that there is water where it shouldn't be.
We reached out to the owner and reported our experience. Our goal was to come to some kind of reasonable accommodation and move to a healthier place. His response was to deny any problem. He kept all of our money (about $5K) and refused to give an even partial refund, which we would have accepted. We ended up moving out after 4 nights and spent an additional $3K on a different Airbnb, which was lovely and where we felt great, as it didn't have a mold problem.
There are two claims they made that I'd like like to address. We were told:
"People have rented this for 4 years and there's been no problem." That's irrelevant. It's like saying you haven't had cancer for 4 years so therefore you don't have cancer. Mold grows over time if there is an inappropriately moist environment in a house.
"The owner was there 10 days ago and didn't notice a problem." We didn't either when we first walked in and all the windows were open. You have to actually be there and breathe the bad air to really notice.
Manu, the property manager with Easy Clés Biarritz, was actually pretty nice. He got it. But he told me these exact words: "the owner has a problem with money. Not that he doesn't have enough but that he won't invest *at all* into the apartment."
So it seems the owner's plan is just to deny the problem and keep renting it without addressing it. It's been our worst Airbnb experience by far over the past decade and having rented dozens of Airbnb's.
My hope is that if you read this and you care about the air you breathe then our loss of a few thousand dollars saves you the pain of renting this place.