STAY AWAY. The owners should be ashamed of themselves at the false advertising of this place. Don't believe the filtered photos. Despite the "enhanced cleaning" and "clean and safe" labels, this was a dirty, obviously uncleaned room. This is the first time ever we are writing a negative review on a listing in all the many years we've traveled and used accommodation on AIR BNB, Booking.com and other websites. Even cheaper, tinier accommodations at less developed countries were cleaner and had better service!
Cleanliness - ESPECIALLY the bathroom - is always very important to us, even moreso now due to COVID-19. The only thing that seemed to be cleaned in this apartment were the bedsheets, towels and toilet (the cover of which still looked a bit dirty, but at least the inside of the toilet looked like it was cleaned).
We specifically chose this listing in the end, despite considering other cheaper listings in the area at half the price, due to price being more expensive. We thought: it's been a while we've been on vacation, so why not splurge, right? And since this room is more expensive, it must be cleaner, right? WRONG AND WRONG.
We saw there were a few bad reviews, but, again, we thought there were more positive reviews than negative ones, so what were the chances of us having a bad experience, right? And again also considering the more expensive pricetag, this must mean they are cleaner than cheaper apartments at the same location , right? WRONG AND WRONG AGAIN!
When we arrived, we immediately saw the bathroom - which is adjacent to the front door - had not been cleaned. The sink, shower, and walls were CLEARLY not washed and cleaned, and the floor still had dirt, hair strands, and dirty shoeprints.
Upon entering the actual apartment, the bed seemed to be made with fresh towels. Upon closer inspection, there were a few visible strands of hair (long black hairs and very short blonde hairs that I hope were not pubic hairs).
After seeing these two things, we then decided to check what else was not clean. The table and kitchen counter had dust, dirt and food crumbs; the fridge was clearly not cleaned as it also had food crumbs and liquid spots; the kitchen sink also had food crumbs and was visibly not cleaned properly; the door/furniture handles had dirt on them, too. There was an IKEA bag left lying open in the middle of the room (I think this was supposed to be the laundry bag?) which had trash inside it. Furthermore, the place has a funky smell that I suspect comes from the sinks or the drainage system; like you know that smell of a sink not having been cleaned for a long time? That smell.
We decided to use our own money to clean the apartment ourselves as we 100% believe this apartment was not cleaned or sanitized AT ALL. A few pictures and video I took as proof, where you can also see my husband cleaning the bathroom, which he - despite having worked in the military and health service so he has seen some dirty bathrooms - still refused to use. Remove the parentheses () and change the (DOT) to . as AIRBNB removes links in reviews: (i)(m)(g)(u)(r)(DOT)(c)(o)(m)/a/H9UUX2X
After cleaning the bathroom and apartment, I decided to shower. Lo and behold - the drain is clogged! (See my photos in the link above). Of course it would be, considering the bathroom was not cleaned lol. A typical 10-minute shower will take you twice as long since you will CONSTANTLY have to close the shower and stop washing yourself to avoid overflowing the shower cabin with clogged water.
The hallway outside the studio kind of smells like Baygon spray or some sort of chemical, which is not a big deal since you're quickly out of there anyway. The hallway inside the studio smells a bit funky, too. I think it might either be due to the lack of cleaning (as the hallway inside the studio and the common kitchen also looked uncleaned) or due to the food and dirty dishes left at the kitchen sink.
Sound carries quite easily from the apartments, so you can hear if someone is walking around or talking. Luckily, the other guests during our stay were not noisy during the night, which is the most important thing.
Check-in process was okay, but we wish the listing had been more informative. This is the first time we've not received any check-in information on an AIR BNB listing. Normally, two days before check-in you get a reminder containing the private check-in details on what you need to do or expect. This was blank. I reached out to the host who, to be fair, quickly replied I needed to wait on the day of arrival to receive a key-code and further instructions.
The last three things about the hallway, noise, and the check-in are normally small incidents we'd just brush off and not include in a review. This time, however, we feel it is worth mentioning to let you understand how all these small things just added up to a terrible, waste of money experience.
AIR BNB lists this as "Enhanced Cleaning" listing where they "thoroughly clean" the room and "sanitize down to the doorknob". This label needs to be removed for this listing as our experience suggests otherwise!!!
I highly suspect the managers saw we were only staying for 2 nights and decided it was not worth the hassle to properly clean the apartment. Incredibly disrespectful to fake advertise this apartment with enhanced cleaning for COVID-19. Considering the superb service we received at another listing in Portugal close to Lisbon at the same price-range, we are incredibly disappointed at this experience.
A few positive things about this listing are the location, if you want to be at the center of Lisbon close to the metro station, airport, restaurants, pub, and supermarket;