Lets start with the good things: The apartment is very nice, clean, well equipped and in a fantastic quarter. If nothing goes wrong, you could spend a good time there. But this is theoretical, because it was the worst Airbnb experience I ever had. I've been all over the world, often with Airbnb, and I am renting flats, hotel rooms and holiday homes for several months every year. Often in big cities. Experiences were great everywhere – until I came to this flat.
First, be aware that the roof terrace, although advertised as "private", is only semi-private. The roof top is parted in four areas, each of the areas belongs to one flat. But: the areas are separated only by waist high walls. The feeling of "privacy" is similar to a restaurant table: You have your own space, but you see, hear and smell the neighbours. Although this is not exactly what the host advertised, it doesn't necessarally have to be bad. Maybe you make good friends with the neighbours.
If, as in our case, loud construction work is going on on the next terrace area, it makes it impossible to even just be on the terrace. I´m talking about loud hammering, buzzsaw work, chiseling tiles and painting wood. Meaning: Noise, dust and paint fumes all day long.
In the flat, which is just one level down, the noise spilled in so heavily, that you could not even talk. An non-usable terrace plus an extremely noisy flat is not my definition of a flawless experience. Because I paid the full price, I asked the host Hugo what he could do about it.
He promised to have the work stopped, but he broke the promise hours later. Then he promised to stop at least the noisy work and have a visual cover built. None of this happend anytime. When I asked Hugo to keep his promises, he insulted me and suggested to cancel the booking. I immediately started searching another flat with similar features (Airbnb helped me there). But neither me nor Airbnb were able to find a similar flat – no surprise for any Airbnb user, as good things are always rare. Cause I needed a flat with the features of Hugo`s and were very busy, I did not have time to invest more hours and days into searching.
I decided to accept living with this flaws, but I called on Hugos fairness to reimburse me 50% of the fee for every day of construction work, as I had to hang around in cafes all day long to be able to to my stuff (and having all meals in restaurants instead of the roof terrace, as paint fume does not go well to food). Hugo refused to reimburse me all the time. When I finally used the Airbnb mediation centre to find a solution, he accused me of blackmailing him – which is an allegation of a crime. As this flat is more expensive than others because of the roof terrace, this is the most lousy experience I ever had in an Airbnb, hotel or holiday home rental. It´s like getting a rotten piece of food in a restaurant or a rental car with a flat tire – and are asked to f**k off if you want at least a part of your money back.
The cased is not solved yet, I hope that in the future, Airbnb will quality-controls those hosts that refuse to act responsible if they don´t deliver what they advertised.
At the time of our departure in the first week of April, it did not seem that the construction is done. Plus, there is another construction site in the house, that you hear loudly in the flat. If you consider to rent this place, ask Hugo about the situation. But don´t trust his answers.