The good:
- The apartment is in an excellent location, close to the Vatican.
- The bedroom window opens onto a relatively quiet side-street meaning noise levels at night were generally quiet, despite being so central.
- The apartment is spacious and the hosts provide a number of amenities (spare toothbrushes, large shower gel dispenser, tea and coffee, hairdryer in bathroom, iron) which were appreciated.
- Leo, who checked us in, did a great job and was very communicative.
The not-so-good:
- The towels, sheets and pillowcases were clean but the throw on the bed was unclean and covered in suspect white stains (although had been folded in such a way not to reveal the stains for our arrival). The throw cushions on the bed were similarly marked/stained in places. The fridge contained some remnants of the previous guest’s food.
- The apartment has air-con in both the bedroom and kitchen/living room. We downloaded the manuals for the remote control but found it to be really unresponsive. Temperature controls did not work and often turning on the air con (and waiting half an hour) did nothing despite the remote showing it as working. Perhaps the batteries need changing? Nevertheless, when it was working it was very effective and much-needed as we had very hot weather during our stay.
- We struggled to get cool water from the kitchen tap, despite cool water being available from the bathroom tap. After running the tap for a minute, the water was still warm but air in the plumbing was making the tap fitting shake violently and spit water. This meant we refilled our bottles with warm-ish water and then refrigerated them, which required a bit of forwards-planning although not a massive issue.
The bad:
- The bathroom is very tired and was not cleaned to a high standard. The sanitary silicone outside and inside the shower unit was crumbling off and was all yellowed/brown. The shower plug hole is heavily corroded. The sink has a large crack in it. The waste bin was so heavily rusted that the lid did not shut. Tile grout was yellowing and one of the towel hooks was simply a nail hammered into the wall. The state of the bathroom really let the apartment down in our opinion. It felt like we were staying at a one star hotel.
- The front door system. The apartment is one of two operated by the host out of what was previously a single residence. You use a key to enter the shared space at the front (containing a stained red carpet, printer and coffee machine) and then another key to open a heavy steel-framed frosted glass door to enter the apartment itself. As explained by Leo, the apartment door requires a lot of force to open/close. We were frequently woken up by our neighbour entering and exiting their apartment late at night as the slamming of their door reverberated into our apartment.
Additionally, the apartment door can only be closed using the key and you only get one key. It cannot be locked from the inside without the key. This makes it difficult for multiple people staying at the apartment if everybody doesn’t leave at the same time. A person staying in the apartment needs to use the only key to secure themselves in the apartment, meaning the person leaving the apartment can’t independently get back in. Lone travellers might also feel uncomfortable about the neighbouring apartment’s residents being able to track their comings and goings due to the door being frosted glass which shows whether somebody is home and has the light on. The sound insulation also wasn’t great and we could briefly hear the neighbours’ private conversations through their door when passing through the common area (and we assume they could do the same for us).
- The host was not communicative following check-in. We needed to amend our reservation following our flight being cancelled. Our request and message was left on read by the host. Leo was a great help, however. Despite clear communication between us and Leo, the host raised a spurious complaint regarding the duration of our stay with Airbnb, which was resolved in our favour. This was really disappointing and did nothing to alleviate the stress of having to urgently rearrange our travel plans. In the future we will avoid using Smart Lodgings.