⛔***WARNING *** ⛔: In advance, my apologies for the length of this
review, but we thought it was essential to inform people so they wouldn't face the same experience.
For the positive aspects of the flat :
- AC
- Cheap for Athens (for a reason, we'll come back to that)
- Well equipped
For the negative aspects :
- The neighborhood: We were aware that it wasn't the safest and
fanciest neighborhood of Athens due to other guest's comments.
Nonetheless, we didn't imagine it would be that unsafe.
You can find a range of people around the location of the flat :
Drug addicts (who for some passed out in front of the building's door, prostitutes (we're talking proper crack addicts), as well as some really shady characters (by the looks of it, you should avoid being out alone at night).
To add insult to injury, we enjoyed seeing on two separate occasions people naked (we're talking full-on flashing of genitals).
The whole area is foul, with garbage everywhere and the putrescent smell that goes with it.
Honestly, we did not feel safe, yet we come from Paris's suburbs, some being well known for their insecurity. However, in this case, we've never seen such a level in a capital city (and we've done all major European ones).
- The flat is well equipped but really noisy. If I had spoken the other resident's language, we could have followed the whole conversation. Besides, it wasn't properly cleaned. The floor and the toilets had all the attention, but the rest was done superficially (we took photos).
- To top it all, when you read the flat's listing, there is a washing machine. But if you look in-depth, another tab says that it's on-demand with additional fees. Tricky, I know, but that's the game played here. Anyway, we messaged the host about the washing machine, he promptly replied: 25€ of installation fee and 3 to 5 euros a day. I should say that we asked if he could lower it, but no flexibility was possible. So, we did what every good consumer would do; we searched laundromats around. You've got one not 5 minutes away from the flat where you can wash for 3eu and dry for 1eu.
To conclude, the neighborhood is really the major downside of it all (you'd better stay around the Acropolis). We didn't enjoy our stay as we could have, unfortunately.