This review comes down to this: this is probably the last place you should consider for your stay in Porto.
After showering the first morning, as I tried to leave the bathroom, the door would not open. The door handle was broken and did not open the door from inside. I was by myself locked in a windowless room with nothing in my hands except my toilet bag. I remained locked for several hours.
These things can certainly happen. But if anybody from the (anonymous) company that supposedly rents the place had tested the door (by simply using the bathroom as anybody normally would), this would never have happened. The answer I received from the host was in perfect harmony with the door’s dysfunction: “never heard about it.” Matter closed. Nothing else was said at the time. It got only worse when I informed Airbnb: not only the same person from the host company (someone called Éloi) denied then there was a problem with the door but even became aggressive towards me. (I have a video showing that the door could not be opened from inside the bathroom). If a host’s response to problems is the real test of his/her quality, this host could not have failed more miserably to meet any minimal standards: instead of addressing the problem, denial; instead of offering support, attack. So, first lesson: you are completely on your own and at your own risk if you decide to rent this place.
Other things worth noticing. Communication with the host(s) (which seem to be a team of a lest three people) is quite unreliable. Sometimes someone replies immediately and sometimes there are no replies. And this occurs regardless of whether you use the Airbnb message center or texting through WhatsApp, and regardless of the importance of the matter. The replies are usually anonymous.
Another major problem is the internet connection. It is very poor for today’s standards: not enough to communicate or work via video-conference. It gets interrupted frequently even if you simply play music from internet radio. If you use FaceTime you will not have continuous video for more than two minutes. The connection is practically zero in the balcony. The explanation? The apartment does not seem to have its own internet connection: there is no router inside the apartment, the connection’s name itself is the name of the apartment across the hallway, and the connection happens to be a bit better by the entrance door…. Can this be advertised as an apartment “with wifi”?
As to the place itself, except for the balcony, which is its most distinctive feature, the rest of the apartment feels like a hotel room. It is clean, true, as others have noted. But maybe a better description would be to say it is “sterilized”: it is an apartment created for tourists—or, rather, for internet pictures. There is no indication of any regular continuous life in it. The furniture is minimal—what you see on the pictures. Basic practical things that someone living there would need are missing. In the area between the couch and the balcony (which is where the only table is) there is only one outlet (behind the couch). There are no lamps except the ceiling one in the whole (large) living room and that light is not even enough to read comfortably. In the balcony the light is barely enough to eat at night (let alone reading) and there are not outlets either (in case you want to plug the computer, for example). Given their presence, someone would also expect some protection against mosquitos (some net on the balcony?). The toilet is not prepared for toilet paper: a sign in the bathroom specifically asks to deposit all used toilet paper in the trash.
The hotel feeling is amplified by the fact that none of the rooms, except the living room, has a direct window to the exterior (a couple of rooms have “windows” not other rooms). As to the views from the balcony, yes, you can see the views that appear on the website. But those pictures are a bit misleading: there is a part of the general view, on the right side, which does not appear in the pictures and which alters substantially how the balcony feels. The wall of the adjacent building on the right stretches perpendicularly for a few meters (producing an effect similar to placing you right hand on the side of your face as if you were trying to block the side view and looking only towards your left to avoid the obstacle).
I was not lucky enough to receive the welcome goodies others talk about in their reviews. In fact, there was nothing even in terms of condiments in the kitchen (except some used remnants other had left of salt, oil, and coffee capsules). There were no toiletries either, except a refillable bottle with some hand soap and some toilet paper. Only one garbage bag was provided for my three-day stay. There was no insecticide in sight either (it could have helped against the mosquitos).
The TV has only four or five local channels, all of them in Portuguese.
The apartment is quiet regarding street noise but you can hear almost anything that occurs in the stairway and even in some of the nearby apartments. From time to time a very strong noise comes from the bathroom area, as if the neighbors were flushing their own toilet. But the noise in this case is much louder than the one produced by the apartment’s own toilet. It is strong enough to scare you and to wake you up in the middle of the night—if the mosquitos have not done it before.
Besides the balcony, the only other good feature of this apartment is the location, close to the most charming areas of old Porto.
In sum, if I forget about the bathroom chapter, I felt I paid for the balcony—and maybe the location. But if you need to work in the apartment,