One of the main reason we picked this place was because it was listed as « dog accepted » unlike 80% of flat. We hadn’t read the entire rules before booking and found out , after check in , that we had to pay an addionnal fee of 20 euros. ( which is fine ) but if we had known, we would have picket an appartment much closer to the center, and ask for permission like we did in Lisbonne and pay the fee anyway.
After the very first night, we decided we wanted to shorten our stay in Porto, for different reasons that I will détail bellow, and the city being smaller than what we thought. We still wanted to respect the minimum nights, so we asked to stay 4 nights Instead of 6., with a 4 days notice. Although Airbnb gave us the possibility to modify, the host refused our request. I didn’t find this very friendly, and I don’t estimate This being a loss of business since there was a minimum stay respected and à notice.
Thus, we don’t like to lose money so we stayed the full week to discover Porto and that gave us the possibility to evaluate better the appartement :
I made a mistake by booking the apartment for one person; although I had provided 2 passeport 6 hours ahead of check in, the local cleaner did the second bed, and was very friendly.
The city center is more of a 20 minutes walk ( not 8 minutes ) and to go all the way to the touristic famous port takes about 30 minutes.
The elevator doesn’t feature an inside door which don’t appear as very safe ( especially with a dog ). Although the rule and regulation ask us to be quiet after 10.pm, and to respect the neighborhood, the building is old and is not sound proofed so we could hear absolutely everything, especially the elevator. I had to ask a neighbor one night to reduce the volume of his television at 00.30am.
I understand that electricity is pricy in Portugal but we felt a bit frustrated by the followings point : As much as the place is listed as 2 bathroom, note that the host cut down the hot water on the lower floor, therefore it was not possible to use this shower. Also we had to clean the dishes in the kitchen with cold water in the winter.
We also picked the apartment for washing machine , but realised we had to pay 15euros to use it. This should be more clear.
Although It is very well explained on the details of the appartement, the second room is extremely low ceiling right under the roof. My friend kept bumping his head. This is really to take in consideration
The Moroccan decoration is indeed lovely , and place is clean as described, but there is so much decoration that there is almost no place left to put our stuff.
We still made the best with what we had and enjoyed our stay in Porto.
Thanks
Jean & Giorgio