Mario's place was overall a good experience. In fact it would have been great had it not been for the only downside, which I'll explain below. Here's a breakdown of what worked and what didn't:
Pros
- The flat: the apartment itself was great, everything was as advertised, very spacious and bright living area with a view on the lovely Marques square, new furniture and appliances, comfy bed, great shower
- Location: The flat overlooks Marques sq, which not only has an abundance of coffeeshops, but also really great connections with most of the city through the Metro station (literally 10 seconds from the apartment), and many buses. Walking to the centre is also a nice 20 min walk downhill
- Service: Alexandra, the person that greeted us, was all around outstanding, she waited for us at the apartment and explained how everything worked as well as offering some tips on what to do and where to eat. It is also possible to leave your luggage in the storage lockers on the ground floor when checking out, which was great for us
Cons
- On our first night, we found a few small cockroaches crawling on the bathroom floor. After we got rid of them we didn't find any more throughout our stay, though we didn't check again at the night. Now, my gf and I are not too fussed about this, since it's something that can happen in old buildings, and it wasn't too bad. However, the response from Alexandra was basically "we're very sorry about that", but no concrete action was taken to make amends. For example, offering to clean the bathroom would have been appreciated
Overall, if the cockroach issue gets fixed, we'd definitely stay here again as everything else was spot on.