For a short term stayer, this apartment may be a good option as your base. The location is in the art district and within walking distance to porto landmarks.
However, for long term stayers, like us, the experience was far from pleasant. We have stayed in many vacation rentals including ABBs globally and frequent visitors of Porto, and I would say this stay had been the most stressful in our 8 years with ABB.
- The bathroom had mouldy smell that was difficult to get rid of due to lack of ventilation. There is a small fan but it's not enough to get rid of the constant moist and the smell. This caused me skin allergies / flare ups during the stay. In addition, the bathroom is an ensuite, so the smell is hard to ignore when you sleep right next to it.
- We had a colony of ants that came from the wall cracks in the kitchen/laundry area eventhough we kept the apartment in a reasonably clean and tidy condition and did not have any exposed food laying around.
- Weekly cleaning is at a fee that is considered high for Porto, so we opted for self cleaning. While cleaning tools were provided, we had to buy our own cleaning supplies, such as disinfectant spray, toilet and floor cleaner, dishwashing liquid etc.
- While the host is quick to respond and tried to find "workarounds" to issues around the apartment, they did not deal with complains well. When asked for an apartment swap due to ants and unresolved mould issue, they offered us options that are smaller than what we had paid for and in a different town (Gaia) or undesirable area. When asked for a refund for an early check out, they offered us an unfair amount despite the troubles we had to go through (We paid 1160 euro for 28 days, and was only offered 160 back for the remaining 7 days). In the end, we were forced to stay until check out as we did not want to lose money and having to transport our suitcases in between our work schedules.
- One of their staff was unprofessional over the phone. Not sure if it was a language or cultural barrier, but i was literally laughed at when trying to negotiate a reasonable outcome with her. I was also told they had done more than enough as they don't own the apartments, they are simply the facilitator.