AVOID THIS PLACE!
Until the bathroom smell / sewer pipe problem is fixed.
Unfortunately, I can not recommend to rent this place. We stayed with my spouse in Elizabete’s place for 4 whole days and 4 nights. There is a serious plumbing problem in the apartment, which is noticed by Elizabete a while ago (as communicated to us), but no fixed. As a a result, the bathroom stinks tremendously bad. The smell varies during the day, since the plumping system is attached within all the apartments and affected by the toilet use in them. As an example, my spouse did the makeup outside of the bathroom. We brushed our teeth in the kitchen. I almost vomited once in the morning since the smell was just horrible. The bathroom is not on the standard of living in my opinion. If you need to use a shower or a toilet, it is to be honest awful experience. The smell is indescripable. Basically the smell is consisting of feces from other people mixed in bacteria and mold… Other than this smell problem, I can 100% join reviews from other travellers regarding this place.
Firstly, we paid with the service and cleaning fee 100€ per night altogether. Cleaning fee was 10€ and service 60€ over the period we stayed at the place. To add credibility, I have visited ~50 countries, living abroad for more than once, and having in total ~200 separate trips abroad in my life. Travelling is a second nature for me, so undestanding other cultures and e.g. standards of living is something that fascinate and motivate me to travel. Also, staying in low-end hostels and homestayes is not new thing to me. Always doing that outside Europe as well. I am writing this review, since I did not receive fair treatment, and spending 400€ I would like to warn other travellers to avoid these situations.
Secondly, we communicated this problem many times with Elizabete. We highlighted that the flat shoud not be rented like this because the bathroom is out of order. For the first day we waited if the odor just goes away. It didn’t. When we arrived to apartment for the first time, we kept windows open to get the smell away. When we closed bathroom door we were able keep the smell almost solely in bathroom area.
Thirdly, when asking about the issue, we were instantly informed that the smell comes from sewer pipes and is that how attached plumping system of all the apartments. On the third day were told that nothing can be done, again. Then we asked for the compensation. Someone (maybe) visited the place when we were not present, as we agreed with Elizabete. The result from that inspection was that because we were there the problem can not be discussed… I then asked that why they did not inform us to be present and if someone had really visited to see the problem can we discuss it now via Airbnb chat. She just told then, that yes someone visited and the smell was not that bad, adding, that she knows that smell is present only ONCE in 3-4 months. Which is funny, since I understood this is a rather new problem for them, and especially the smell is constantly present. Sometimes milder but very disturbing most of the time. I told her, that would we would like arrange a meeting in the apartment to discuss this in person. The answer was, that it is no more possible, no certain explanations why. She answered also, that she was already very nice for us since she made the check in earlier for a couple of hours for us… That is her compensation at this point and if we are not satisfied she will return us part of one night’s price. For us, being on our vacation and struggling things like this for days, also having at this point 10 hours left prior heading to the airport, we rejected the offer.
To sum up, I found that the problem has been known, not fixed or informed however, and for that reason we felt scammed by the overall setup. My recommendation is, that if you especially want to rent this place, ensure beforehand that this problem is fixed. There are plenty of other places with the same price tag without hassles like this. Also, Radisson Blue is just around the corner offering, with the same price tag, five star accommodation.