Next time I come, I will not stay in this place/area. It is too touristy - too many fridge magnets being sold versus local eateries/products. I would consider Bairro Alto or Chiado. Overall, as the weather was nice, I spent 1 day out in Cascais + Carvavelos and another day at Praia do Guincho + Sintra, which surpassed my expectations (but I like nature). I felt Alfama was a too many fridge magnets being sold place also; so, it was underwhelming, and a part of why I picked this place was it's proximity to Alfama. I can't say I like Lisbon City that much, and now that I'm in Porto, would say Porto > Lisbon, but this is subjective.
To this place, it looks great in photos, but it's been well used/amortized, and needs to be updated
Pros
- great sky lighting in this place
- overall big place
- aircons are everywhere, and very new and work well
Cons
- shower is a BIG issue; 1) the shower drain stinks/has an odor 2) this odor is so strong, the host uses an air freshener, but then its odor+freshener (yuck!) mixed together - and then the shower is linked to the master bedroom, so the entire master bedroom stinks 3) the toilet flush button is a bit wonky 4) the faucet on / off can fall out/off (to be put back on) 5) the shower door doesn't close properly, so the water just gets out
- sofa is kind of dirty, could use a wash
- front/main door passcode broke one night, and the host said "there's nothing I can do right now, I'm not in town, I'm on holiday", though suggested we ring the other units to open the front door, which actually worked..., but it could've not worked at the same time
- host reply speed is slow. just generally get the feel he's trying to get as high of returns as possible for as little of work (hence the 'art', as it ups the value, but really the things you use aren't of quality)
- pans are pretty old / cut up (and they're teflon!)
generally, if you had to live in this place everyday, you'd go fix the cons, but because we are only guests staying a few nights, we 'live' with it, and hence I feel those things are unfixed.....like who wouldn't throw a scratched teflon pan? want cancer?