Check in was easy enough (drop box), communication was okay but one thing picked up here is we waited all day for a response and then got it at 1802hrs and of course was informed the office closed at 1800hrs. This kind of thing does not set a good start point before you have even moved in? The furniture was nice and comfortable, likewise the beds. The location is great but as people may or may not know Porto is very hilly and I would suggest research for people with disability where to stay, it is of no criticism to the apartment here rather just an awareness for people who struggle with hills.
The apartment itself has potential to be very good. The kitchen area is large and there is absolutely no excuse for not having an oven in it, this restricts you straight away to what you shop for. The polished stairs are quite slippery and my partner fell twice during our stay (simple to rectify with grip strips). There was a terrible odour from the lower bedroom/bathroom area and it was found to be drains/sinks that had not been flushed through regular (probably during periods of downtime). The agent was informed but came up with nonsense saying he will write to the water board etc... rather than simply acknowledge the issue which we had offered to sort ourselves, if he left stronger cleaning chemicals for us to pour down the drains (as we had none in the apartment). Anyway, I spent about 7 Euros myself on various cleaning products and treated it several times a day until it cleared in about 5-6 days (for my own health not the next person or the agent).
Another time, dog excrement had been on the main entrance and walked into the building, we informed the agent and it was dealt with just over 24hours later when it had spread more then. The kitchen utensils given were absolutely shocking (we are currently staying in an accommodation for 37euros a night at present with a tiny kitchen with much more utensils AND AN OVEN ! An example would be that the sponge/scourer for the sink was actually cut in half, to save on expense (this is a first that I have seen anywhere?). The fried egg flipper was literally two fingers wide and you would have to be a former winner of 'Ninja Warrior' to have the necessary skillset to pick an egg up with it or attempt an easy over. Likewise, we put chips on one afternoon and then it quickly dawned on us we could not get them out the fryer with anything useful (in the end it was a big ladle). Washing day was interesting, as the clothes horse is permanently mounted in the bathroom?...I don't think I need to explain why this is really is not a good idea. In the end we had to use the chairs and bedroom clothes rack outside to dry the clothes.
We rent properties ourselves and generally you just need to answer a couple of questions to do it right... "Could I live here myself and have a nice holiday for a week or two?". Based on that, you then ask am I delivering value for money to the level of comfort I'm offering.
The main problem, from what I can see, is the agent running the whole building (as an investor bought the whole block of apartments) just has a general lack of care which results in the issues outlined. I think once the landlord realises what's going on am sure they will make the necessary (small) changes . As like I said at the beginning, there is huge potential under the right management and am sure it will be very popular then.
So to conclude, a mixed bag...some good some bad... but very easy to rectify and turn into a great place - time will tell.