Overall, we were disappointed with our stay.
We thought about the kind of review we wanted to leave, and have settled on the one I wish I’d read and taken seriously before booking.
One of the things that pushed us to write this is that upon entering the room we had a dried blood stain on our sheets, not so small as to be able to ignore. We asked the host to change the sheets and had no response but the next day realised the bed had been made so assumed it had happened. When we left the apartment to go home we realised that the sheet was the same and the host had simply remade the bed so that the blood stain was by our feet. This is not only super unprofessional but also a hygiene risk.
A lot of other people in reviews have mentioned that it is quite noisy outside. Being a fairly heavy sleeper I thought this would be fine. The first three nights I found it almost impossible to sleep and finally had to use noise cancelling ear phones to drift off. Due to Portugal’s COVID restrictions bars had to stop serving at 1am which leads everyone out on to the streets. The apartment is right above a bar and deep within the main bar district. This is fine as we were warned. However, often we’d come home to drunk people sat on our doorstep we had to fend off to get in. This happened every night we were there weds-sun. The room itself is on the first floor and although the windows stop some of the sound enough comes through to effect your sleeping. You can also hear people very clearly coming up the steps which is often as you’re on the first floor. We could also hear the people above us very well and I don’t believe they were trying to make too much noise / isn’t fair if we ask them to be quiet on their holiday. I strongly advise the host to provide cheap earbuds for all guests.
The toilet also would not stop making a noise once flushed, it kept dripping water and as the bed is right next to the bathroom you could hear this all night. I would have asked the host but to be honest after not getting a reply about the bed we felt like we were bugging her.
The flat looks slightly different to the images, they’ve been taken to make it appear much larger but there is no headboard and generally feels cheaply made.
It would also have been nice to have some tea sachets as there was a kettle but you don’t want to buy and entire box for a short stay.
Look, we had an amazing time in Portugal. Unfortunately the apartment was the worst part about the whole trip.
I’m sure the host will have some sassy comment to come back with as you can see from the other reviews. I’m sure they also don’t know that responding to these reviews in such a rude manner puts people off booking this place. Well now they know.