We wanted to like this place so much. On the surface it’s great. Excellent location and I am sure the place was wonderful several years ago when the pictures where taken. When you first walk in the place seems great. Amazing views and no doubt it’s in an amazing location. However once we settled in the many problems started to surface. There were several maintenance issues. Many of the hard wood floor pieces were completely dislodged from the floor. My kids tripped on them several times and you could just lift the pieces out of the floor with your hand. This wasn’t one or two pieces but all over the apartment. The faucet in the bathroom sink and the holder for the shower handle were so loose we were worried they would break off in our hands. The rugs are thread bare and the couch is years past it’s prime and has a cheap looking white sheet thrown over it to cover it’s condition.
Cleanliness was a major issue. Again on the surface when we first arrived the place seemed fine. The longer we stayed the worse it got. There was a coating of dust on most surfaces. We closed the trundle bed to put the crib in the second room and there was so much dust under there I can’t imagine the last time it was cleaned. Not very nice to have to clean up before putting my kids to sleep after traveling for 20 hours.
We went to do laundry and there was wet linen in the washing machine. There was a note that said if you want to do laundry just remove the wet linen and set it aside, that is not something you should have your guest doing. I must add there was a musky smell to the linen we slept on that no doubt came from the sheets not being dried properly.
This house is touted as family friendly and while yes it does have ample space for a family I need to mention the access to the place. You enter the main door to the building then need to go up several stairs. You then enter a very narrow hallway to a tiny elevator. This was like a comedy routine trying to navigate this with a stroller and a toddler and two large suitcases. We had to take two trips every time we used the elevator. Once you get to the top of the elevator we were very surprised to see that we didn’t enter a hallway like a traditional apartment building but were were on a tiny walkway 8 stories up with just a little railing to block the edge, again hardly ideal for kids.
Another thing to mention is the beds were rock hard. Now I found out this is a cultural thing and most beds in Portugal are this way but I wanted to give anyone heading to Portugal the heads up.
We wrote the owner a lengthy note during our stay outlining our concerns and they said “ OK thanks for letting us know we will let maintenance know about it. “ I am fairly certain nothing I told them was news. They didn’t seem to care at all. This is what happens when the place is a business and not someone’s home. This was evident though out. The place was just missing any kind of the care you get from someone’s home.
Now how does this place have so many good reviews? My wife and I contemplated this. Perhaps there are some fake ones who knows. Perhaps they were from a while ago when the place was better. Or perhaps there are many people that just don’t care about any of the things we mentioned.
If you don’t really care about attention to detail and surface cleaning is Ok for you. This place is in a great location and it was cheap. We thought it was to good to be true and it was. Ask yourself if this place is as good as it seems why is it so cheap?