We returned from a 6 night stay in Lisbon upon the recommendation of my sister who stayed there last year. The apartment was ideal due to its great location and amenities, including air conditioning which was our top priority. And I will start by saying it is a lovely apartment with nice furnishings, beautiful windows in a great part of the city. That is the good news.

Imagine our disappointment to find that the air conditioning was not functioning at all and despite repeated calls, texts and messages via Airbnb there was not one response from the host. My sister also texted and messaged the host and did hear back that they would look into it and get a technician to look at it. At no point did this happen. The average temperature in the apartment was between a sticky 30-33 degrees Celsius.

We were thinking of leaving the apartment and checking into a hotel however since we had no communication with anyone, we didn't feel it was just and fair to pay for accommodation at a hotel and move our family of four and our luggage when we had paid in full for this apartment. Each day we hoped to hear from Alex (the host) and apart from the few minutes we met him in the beginning where he was friendly, he completely disregarded our attempts to reach him and did not show us the courtesy of a response throughout our 6 night stay. He had assured us he could be reached by phone or text and provide sightseeing and restaurant recommendations and therefore we were even more upset when no contact was made.

After a long day of touring the city in 36+ degree Celsius weather we looked forward to coming back to a comfortable and cool place to relax and unwind instead of the hot, stinky place we came back to each day. The fans did little to cool us down and our kids slept on the couch since their rooms were too hot to sleep in. We actually spent more time out and about as we dreaded going back there.