This was the worst experience I had in using Airbnb for some years. The pictures here of this appartement seem so nice, but when we arrived in the flat, we noticed that reality is very different. Without a doubt, the building and the flat per se is very beautiful (high ceilings, wooden doors etc.). But that's about all.
We booked a room in this appartement especially because of the nice balcony shown in the pictures and were already imagining passing our eveningts there. Yet, what expected us was a shock: A very dirty balcony with furniture that could not be used. There also was a scaffolding obstructing any view. Sure, the scuffolding is nothing that the host is responsible for, but it should have been communicated. But the list goes on: we noticed that the door (window) facing the balcony did not close properly which means that one could not only potentially access the room from outside, but also that due to the scaffolding accessing was actually very easy. Also, the chest of drawers was halfway broken and one of the beds very uncomfortable and squeaking. We contacted the co-host, Flavio, the same evening that we arrived and kindly asked him to take care about the window, as we were not only afraid to leave our value items in there, but also, because it was very cold in the night due to the broken windos. He and the person who as supposedly working for him in Lisbon (a brazilian guy) told us to store towels in front of the window and that someone would come to repair it the next day. Yet, the next day in the evening and after several excuses, the window was still not repaired. Also, we had asked him since our arrival for a third towel (we ere 3 persons and there only were 2 towels), which never arrived. the second evening we decided to leave this appartement and stay in a hostel, as we did not want to sleep another night in an unsafe and cold room and being washed up with more excuses.
After this horrible experience, the worst part was the communication with the co-host afterwards - very rude. He tried to urge us to immediately cancel our reservation so he could rent it otherwise and recover the money. Funny enough, while he didn't answer us the night we tried to callfor help, he was very fast in answering and pushing us to cancel. He then even invented that we had left some stuff in the room, which was not true.
Until now, we still have not received any money back from Airbnb, even though we only spent one cold night in this appartement and spent two days of our dear holidays arguing the the host.
Better keep hands of this appartement and host! As someone before wrote me, they are trying so squeeze as much money as possible out of the place. I think there are a lot really nice alternatives out there and that this recommendation helps other guests to have a better Airbnb experience than the one we had.