Isabel's home is beautiful, well kept and the neighborhood was ideal for me, tucked away up in the hills. A real architectural gem. She rents out two rooms and I was the only person there during my 3 night stay. During my stay, the outside temperature got down to about 40 degrees F (or less), which is quite cold. The one heater inside my room could only be controlled by Isabel and it was kept very low, giving off little heat and not warming the room. My bedroom itself was freezing. She also preemptively left a note on my door instructing me not to close the patio door leading to the outside. The draft blowing through the home offset any potential benefit from the heater in my room. Moreover, there was no hot water to take a shower my first night. I messaged Isabel twice, who was out of the house, telling her about this. She returned home about 9:30pm and said the gas canister ran out. She changed it and eventually, there was warm water (not hot) for the shower. The room on the other hand remained freezing. So, I retreated under the covers to keep warm. The next day she asked me how I slept and I was forthcoming that I did not sleep well due to the very cold temperature in the room. She was taken aback and seemed insulted. She also told me that gas is expensive and if she turned up the heat that she would "be paying me" and essentially loosing money. At $50 dollars a night the house, at least the guest rooms need to be adequately heated. If a guest says they're cold, just turn up the heat. It's pretty simple that guests---paying guests---need to be comfortable.
The following night, she did turn up the heat; not as much as I would have liked but oh well...
When I arrived, she gave me a tour of the house, including the kitchen and told me what to use and not. The first morning there, I accidently used a pan to cook eggs that I shouldn't have and she absolutely unleashed and went ballistic on me. She shouted at me at least 4 times saying "Mark, I told you not to use that pan"! I was totally mortified. It was an innocent mistake and she could have just simply said "Mark, could you please not use that pan". I mean really! I was on the verge of just leaving but I had already bought food, unpacked and dealing with Airbnb for a refund for the remaining two nights was just going to be a headache. Tense! I did not feel welcome. Absolutely no way to treat/speak to a guest. I would suggest having one cabinet that is clearly labeled "guest use" to avoid any potential issues in the future. She also has two large dogs who jumped all over me when I arrived and periodically during my stay. They'd try to take food off of the table where I was eating and it was really annoying. At one point she said: "you don't like dogs"? In fact, I love dogs, but not when they jump all over me, try to take my dinner and bark on and off until 10PM.
The last thing that was really weird , was that she asked me to pay one Euro per night cash (3 Euro total) claiming that this was a tax she needed to pay. VERY BIZARRE... In the itemized breakdown of charges, I was already charged tax. Moreover, in my two months in Portugal and multiple stays, I've never had a host ask me to pay them cash for anything, in particular for tax. When I told her that she's the only person who's ever asked me, she said that everyone else was "doing it wrong".