Probably the most terrifying stay we have ever had at an airbnb. About 6 hours after check-in we were all asleep after a long flight. I was woken up by my young daughter screaming that a man was breaking into the house. Running to the front door in a sleepy daze expecting an armed intruder, I was confronted by a man trying to get into the house with door partly opened but the door chain preventing him from getting inside. He couldn't speak English and I couldn't understand what he wanted. I eventually figured out he wasn't trying to harm or rob us and possibly wanted to give us towels but as I wasn't expecting anyone, I didn't feel safe to let him and he eventually angrily stormed off leaving towels at top of stairs. I later learned from the host that she had messaged me earlier in the day if it was ok if the female cleaner could deliver extra towels, and if I would give them authority to let themselves in. I didn't see the message and certainly didn't give authority for anyone to let themselves in so I considered this completely unacceptable on multiple levels. All in all a very traumatic and unpleasant experience especially for the children and lady in the house who thought there was an intruder trying to hurt us. Overall communication could have been much better. The host was "Bernard", but the person who messaged through me airbnb was "Margarida". The person who let us in and gave us an extended tour was "Isabel" and the cleaner (who never came in was Maria) and the man at the door was the cleaners husband apparently. It was all very confusing as to who I was dealing with, and the miscommunication with a (well-intentioned) man trying entering the house was unacceptable as we were completely unaware that anyone was coming to let themselves in the house when we were sleeping.
Apart from this major intrusion of our privacy, I was disappointed with the property and felt "catfished". The house was not clean when we arrived. Long black hairs everywhere in bathroom and bedrooms, dust everywhere and a strong smell of dampness and black mould in bathroom. The hot water was not on when we arrived and took over 5 hours to warm up which was disappointing to arrive and not have hot water.
There were not enough towels for 4 people for 11 days even with the extra towels and when we asked if the wet towels could be taken away for fresh ones we were told a daily towel service wasn't part of the service. I wasn't expecting or demanding a daily towel service just didn't want to leave a bag of wet towels lying around for 7 days to get mouldy for future guests, so it may have been a miscommunication in my request that wet towels be replaced halfway through our stay. As there wasn't any washing powder I bought some so we could wash our clothes and towels. As there was no clothes drier and nothing to hang clothes or towels except a tiny rack and a broken clothesline hanging outside the window (as is custom in Lisbon), we had to hang clothes on whatever we could inside the house and the towels outside the window (not enough space for all the towels).
The main bed mattress was very hard and we woke up sore. The property is accessed via 3 flights of narrow stairs which was very hard work carrying heavy large suitcases (I’m 6 foot 3 inches and quite strong and struggled as staircase was too narrow to carry suitcase normally). The staircase in the property is very steep and the steps are about twice as high as a regular staircase (about the same as the stairs at the Castle S. Jorge actually) and needed to wear sneakers to go up and down comfortably. There is a freestanding frameless glass balustrade to stop people from falling down the stairs that is secured with 2 screws and some glue. It looked great but was not sturdy and wobbled and would probably collapse if someone leaned on it. Overall the stairs and glass balustrade was not safe for little kids.
Upstairs was quite pleasant and favourite part of house, it looked pretty and the kitchen was excellent apart from rubbish bin which was broken. The sofa was very hard and we ended up using it as a sofa bed to sit on as the mattress was more comfortable to sit on. The balcony had a great view to watch the fireworks. The jacuzzi had clumps of dirt in it and we didn't use it.
We ended up cutting our losses and felt a bit sick with the smell of mould in house, lack of fresh dry towels and uncomfortable bed so we moved out and stayed at another similarly priced property at the Algarve for our last 4 nights (which was spotless, had a comfortable bed and plenty of clean towels, and amazing communication between host and cleaners and myself), and just picked up our luggage from original airbnb on way to airport.
Overall this was not what I would expect from an airbnb plus property and communication and experience could have been much better with a few tweaks (eg comfortable mattress, proper amenities, thorough clean between guests, washing powder and dryer/clothes horse); and no strange men trying to get into house without permission.