A dirty, grubby, apartment. It was quite apparent on arrival that the premises hadn’t been cleaned to any appreciable level. The immediate concern of our family of three was the bathroom, where it was obvious that only the middle of the floor had been mopped, the bathroom mirror was dirty, the taps on the bathroom sink were dirty, the shower housing was covered with ingrained dirt and mould, and the toilet hadn’t been properly cleaned. The room also played host to a couple of spiders and some other crawling insects. We felt uncomfortable leaving any of our toiletries in the bathroom and contacted the owner, who professed herself very taken aback by our concerns and came in to carry out some cleaning. This improved matters somewhat in the bathroom; however, on taking showers later on we discovered that the shower drain was blocked. I had to purchase and use drain cleaner myself to stop the water pooling in the shower.
Apart from the bathroom, the cleanliness of the rest of the premises was also extremely poor. The kitchen surfaces hadn’t been cleaned down when we arrived. I don’t believe the floor had been thoroughly swept either. The tiled splashback around the kitchen area was stained and the top of the tiling behind the sink was covered with a thick layer of dust/dirt and clearly hadn’t been cleaned in a very long time. The front of the extractor fan housing over the cooker was absolutely filthy and coated with a layer of grease and hairs. The toaster was dirty and there was absolutely no evidence that the kettle, fridge door, or other surface contact points such as door handles and taps, had been sanitised in line with the Airbnb Covid cleaning commitments to which the website claimed the owner had signed up.
In addition, only two of the four bedside lamps were working and the main light switch over the bed was broken. The bedrooms have blinds but no curtains, so the rooms are overly bright in the morning. The blinds themselves are in a bad state of repair, and the windows behind them were covered in grime. We had some high winds on a couple of nights, and something on the outside of the apartment (either a TV aerial or some guttering) creaked and grated loudly throughout those nights. The cushion covers in the sitting room were visibly soiled – we moved them off the sofa as we didn’t fancy sitting on them. The wooden frames of the mirrors were dusty, and the bottoms of the wardrobes were dirty and hadn’t been swept/vacuumed. Towels were old and worn; luckily we’d brought our own. The bedclothes were similar – although to maintain peace of mind we didn’t make any detailed inspection of them.
From the photos online, we weren’t expecting the Ritz. But we were expecting a basic standard of hygiene which, by any objective measure, was simply not present. The premises was not up to standard, not worth the more than one thousand euro we paid for a week’s stay, and not what I expect to have to deal with when I take my family on holidays
I contacted the owner several times regarding the state of the apartment. Before coming in to clean the bathroom she suggested that her cleaning lady or her cleaning products were to blame, and stated that she didn’t inspect the property before guests arrived. I later sent her snaps of some of the more photogenically filthy areas of the apartment; at no point did she offer to have additional cleaning performed. In fact. she seemed to think that the free parking and the slightly below-average cost of the apartment should be considered as compensation for the unhygienic and grotty state of the place.
Avoid.