I’ll start off by saying Joao is a great guy,
very nice and helpful, unfortunately the place was very far from what I expected, I’ll detail below.
When I arrived the first surprise was that the apartment is actually a basement, while it looks like a sunny rooftop, it’s actually a quite dark basement on the side of the hill.
When I arrived I noticed the walls had pieces falling off, on several 1m by 50 cm areas, I was worried it was mold, turns out it just wasn't maintained for a long time.
The bathroom had a very bad smell issue, which made the whole have a sewage smell.
This was my first encounter with the place, I immediately messaged airbnb to ask what my options are, because I booked one month and I didn’t want to get trapped in this contract, unfortunately I got no reply from airbnb for a week! and I had a lot of things with me so it wasn’t easy to to move, I decided to fix what I can.
I ended up scraping parts of the wall off so I don’t have clear up bits and pieces of walls very day, I checked with architect friends that indeed, it’s possible its only unmaintained walls and not mold.
The bathroom smell issue eventually got solved after 9 days, turns out it was a missing shower drain piece and something was blocking the vent too.
In the meantime I was taping all drains after each use so the smell doesn't get out.
Overall the place was quite unmaintained and run down. I rearranged furniture, cleaned some areas, replaced bulbs, fixed cabinets, did what I could as I thought I made a mistake, airbnb is not replying, I’ll have to stay.
The strange balcony had both sun protections broken, pieces dangling in the air, I was told they would get fixed, one was removed after 10 days and nothing else happened.
I say strange because you only see roofs, even though you’re in a basement, people are usually dropping stuff from above, there’s pigeons, and several handful of dead bugs in the corner. Not clean and not maintained.
In the house, only a few electric sockets were working, when I asked why I was told they just don't work sometimes.
Furniture in general was lacking, and what was there was of low quality. Only one table, carpet gone, couch worn out, that looks dirty and kind of slides apart when sitting on it, chair repaired with duct tape , clothes hanger is something like a mini tent on metal sticks.
In the kitchen the pots and pans worn out and were quite dirty when I got here
I replaced bulbs in the vent, the filter was greasy and dirty, and wasn't probably deep cleaned in years. No coffemaker, toaster, washing machine leaves white traces on your clothes, you'll have to wash twice. The dishwasher and fridge work as expected.
The internet was slow, below 4-5 mbps on average. It's a mobile internet and there's not much to do in short term since it’s in a basement, my mobile data didnt work well, the place is like a bunker, and for a stable connection you’d need cable internet.
I had to usually go to a different place if I wanted to have video calls.
The place indeed is up a steep hill, I didnt mind that though as I like to exercise. Since you are in a basement you will hear cars pass above you though.
As I said, overall the place gives the impression of a sunny , bright rooftop when it’s actually a quite dark and unmaintained basement.
To top it off, airbnb support handled this case horrible, weirdest support I’ve ever gotten from airbnb, the agent said they were overwhelmed with work that’s why it took 7 days to reply, but even after that the case was clearly rushed through, they sent me some refund and closed it, so I’m thinking they have no process to handle situations like these.
Overall I was very disappointed and I’m concerned of using airbnb again, I thought they assure some sort of quality but unfortunately that was not the case.
I’d like to add though that the place has potential, i it’s spacious ,if it got properly fixed and maintained it could be a good apartment, there’s just a long list of things that don’t seem to work or aren't as you'd expect them to be.