I wonder when Airbnb would start to allow photos in the reviews, which would easily offer a realistic reference to the future guests. I didn't take the other negative review serious enough just because of that.
As you can see from my profile, I've stayed at quite a number of Airbnbs (not to mention those booked by my partner and friends), and I left positive review to most of them. Unfortunately, it's one of the worst 3 experiences so far.
I bet 9/10 of the good marks and price are from their quick response and the location. After that, you really get the most basic service and quality. Drying rack is broken, a ventilator is not working, coffee machine is leaking. One can hardly sit on the "sofa" without the seats/mattress sliding off soon.
The hosts seemed quite entitled for their lack of services. First they informed us that they couldn't let us check in until 5pm. On such a busy narrow street, I wonder how we could wait outside if they didn't come on time at the end. Only 1 set of keys was given us, because some other guests lost it. It was inconvenient that one person always had to rush back if others need to return early. They simply shrugged about these.
I booked it mostly because it was on 1/F since my foot was injured and couldn't walk a lot; also we wanted to have 2 separate rooms for some privacy. The sliding door was falling apart and fell on me (imagine it was a kid trying to close the door), luckily my arms caught it on time. They weren't sorry for the accident and simply said they have informed their "maintenance team", haha. Ofc the "team" didn't fix anything and we didn't get the little privacy we signed up for.
Hygiene is another big problem. I saw another review talking about cockroaches, and from their feedback I got to believe that it was just one off and coming from outside. But right after we arrived, we saw a cockroach running on the wall in the kitchen area. It's not just disgusting, but also made us worried of having some in bed.
The toilet stinks constantly. Always a mess at the main entrance, and the main door can't be locked. There was a gang of dodgy guys standing right there and they could see clearly that the door wasn't locked. As female travellers, it surely wasn't a safe feeling.
The walls are thin, you can hear the conversations of the neighbors clearly, and they're not even shouting. Not to mention the two huge construction sites right in front of the bedrooms, which start working from 8am. We planned to work from the flat and the noise made it difficult. The constructions don't seem to be new, so I wonder why no related info was shared to the guests. Imo that's quite cheeky.
For this price or even lower, we had stayed at other amazing Airbnbs in Portugal. I hate to say that but it was really disappointing.