The location of the apartment could hardly be better. It is in the heart of the city and has excellent transport links. A good supermarket and countless restaurants are a short walk away. The apartment itself is large, comfortable and well equipped (although, as is the norm with Portuguese mattresses, the bed is very hard). We never got to meet the host, because she was in France. We were also unable to contact her by telephone, when we needed to, because the telephone number shown on the Airbnb site was unobtainable. That's probably because it was a French number, which should have had a 00 in front of it. Therefore, all our contact with the host had to be either through the Airbnb website or through Carmen, the helpful lady who greeted us on arrival..................... The reason I tried to contact the host by telephone was that the apartment’s internet access was not working when we arrived. All I could do was send a message via Airbnb describing the problem and asking for it to be fixed urgently. However, it took four very long and frustrating days and a lot of emails, before the modem was replaced and internet access was restored................. Nowadays, researching places to visit, finding good restaurants, booking tickets, downloading maps, video-calling family, keeping up with events back home etc is all done via the internet. Therefore for four days we were forced to use wifi outside the apartment, which meant a lot of unnecessary expense on unwanted drinks and food and a lot of time spent in internet cafes that we would have preferred to spend in the apartment. I am surprised that the host has not offered compensation for this already............... We noticed numerous other examples of poor maintenance - broken or missing lightbulbs, the bath plug release knob that didn’t work (which meant using a knife to lever out the plug!), the faulty lock on one of the windows, the toilet seat that had come loose on one side and the fan that had to be propped up with a toilet roll because it wouldn't stay up on its own. The washing machine was very welcome; but instructions on how to use it would have been helpful. A short stay guest might not care about, or even notice, all these issues, which is perhaps why most of the apartment’s past reviews have been so positive. But they became annoying during a 10 day stay........... Although the apartment was spotlessly clean (credit to Carmen), I wonder if anybody has responsibility for onsite maintenance and for ensuring that everything in the apartment actually works properly before guests arrive. I suspect not.............. The lesson we have for the future will be only to consider staying in accommodation where the hosts live locally and can give personal attention to their guests.