Maria is a very lovely, welcoming host. She was easy to communicate with and very friendly. She gave us tips on places to eat and things to see. I really enjoyed meeting her. However, there were some serious maintenance issues wrong with the apartment that need to be mentioned and resolved before others stay:
Cons:
- All 3 bidets had a horrible sewer smell that stunk up the entire apartment. There is clearly a sewer issue that needs to be resolved.
- The linens on each bed had long black head hair, so bed sheets or the top sheet wasn't properly cleaned
- In the middle of the night, my friend woke up to use the bathroom and saw cockroaches scatter when she turned on the light
- The entry way was a little jarring as you have to go through an alley where local restaurants dump their trash. Trash was often blocking the entry way and could have contributed to the cockroaches.
- Upon arrival, the host insisted on collecting $5 euro per day per person in cash due to the "tourism fee / tax". This amounted to us giving the host $50 euro extra than we had already paid online. I confirmed with airbnb this is against the payment policy. All booking costs should be billed at the time of booking through the website. This is alarming and does not seem right.
Pros:
- Maria was easy and friendly to communicate with
- Maria let us drop off our stuff early
- Decent location near Termini station
- Layout of the apartment on the interior was nice. it's a 3 bedroom 3 bath place and could accommodate 5 adults, which was nice (if there was no smell)
I wish I could give a higher review because Maria was so welcoming and I feel bad writing this, however, if this was a hotel, this situation would not have flown. I understand Rome is an older city and the places to stay are no the most modern, but this apartment in the current condition with the smell and cockroaches was not fit for guests to be staying in. I hope it's resolved, because then I would confidently recommend in the future.
@ Airbnb or Maria - Please refund me the $50 euro "tourism fee" and at least for one night's stay (preferably both) due to the poor condition of the apartment outlined above.