Overall, our experience here was a very poor one. Feels Like Home is a management company that transacts checkin and supports complaints/escalations, so you are not getting the attention and support of a real owner--and that comes through loud and clear. My family of 5 plus one (brother in law) from Seattle spent a week in Portugal in July, 2019 and used this apartment as our home base from which we explored Lisbon (awesome city) and made day trips to cities like Porto and Sintra (highly recommend both). While this apartment worked for us, I would not stay here again, and I certainly would not recommend it to anyone.
As is the case with any Airbnb or other rental, there are pros and cons, but our experience was chockablock full of cons. Here are just some of them, both big and small:
-The Feels Like Home facility in Lisbon is a good 15 min walk from the apartment, so you have to make a stop there for check-in, then make your way to the apartment. So you will probably want a pre-arranged transport from the airport via Feels Like Home (which we had) so your family can wait in a vehicle while someone checks in, then you can make your way to the apartment. This is just an inconvenience, but not a deal breaker.
-Upon check-in, we were told that if we wanted two keys (and what party of 6 would not want an extra key?), we had to leave a deposit of 30Euros and return to the office at check out to hand off the key and get our refund. This is super inconvenient, and you get the sense from the get-go that their policies are not user-friendly.
-Upon being dropped off by the car service at the apartment location in an ok neighborhood on a busy street with a trolley car that runs all day and all night, we opened the main door from the street to find a dark stairway entryway overflowing with garbage, with wires sticking out of the wall, no lighting, and no door numbers. This lobby is what you would expect from a crack house, and it goes to show zero pride of ownership. In fact, the hallway lights were non-functional for the duration of our stay. We had to use our phone flashlight to get up and down the stairs. Ridiculous.
-Once we found the unit and opened the door we saw a charming room. The interior design is very nice, with a nice layout and lots of appliances. However, upon closer inspection, we discovered the freezer was totally frozen over with thick ice. Apparently nobody bothered to clean it before our arrival? I informed Feels Like Home about the freezer near the end of our stay because I did not want them interrupting our stay having someone come and turn off the unit or bang the big ice chunks out. No thanks. We simply didn't use the freezer. Also, the air conditioner in one of the rooms dripped, which we solved by putting a towel down. I wish these were the only issues with the apartment. It got much much worse when we tried to get some sleep...
- The party above us was doing construction of some kind, and we listened to the morons talk, walk, and move equipment all night, for two nights. We then informed Feels Like Home, who encouraged us to call the police. They eventually provided the correct phone number and the police showed up within 30 min and kindly heard our complaint before walking upstairs and talking to the folks above us at around midnight. They were quiet the rest of the evening, but the next two nights were back at work. This was not a complete shock to us. Many of the apartments on the entire street are going through redevelopment (Lisbon is such a hot tourist market, companies are snatching up city apartments by the block and renovating to create rentals), and local tuk-tuk and uber drivers told us that it's pretty common for people to hire foreign workers to fix up their flat during the evening without a permit because they can pay them low wages and avoid city taxes.
-There was an electric meter that buzzed loudly every 5 minutes exactly. The poor soundproofing of the building did't help. It was like having a loud alarm clock go off in your room all night.
I could go on, but the pattern should be clear. Without an owner to work with, you are left at the mercy of a management company that essentially asks you to solve problems yourself, and does not really take pride of ownership. My wife and I agreed that going forward, we are only going to rent owner-managed Aibnbs, or stay in a full-service hotel. Because our experience certainly did not feel like home.