First of all it is hard to describe this place as I may be judging it on the wrong parameters. But in my years of traveling with AirBnB I have never seen anything like this before. Maybe I am judging on unfair standards, as we completely mistook the type of place based on the description. Probably also due to our complete lack of knowledge about Porto which is a much more busy tourist city than I had anticipated.
So this is based on my impressions of the place up against our needs and wishes. Maybe others with an interest to stay right in a tourist area and close to bars and night life would feel differently about it.
As you have probably guessed: had I known that this place was right smack in the middle of the tourist area, then I would have chosen something else. It is literally placed between two of the most busy roads in Porto with cars either honking in ques or blazing by on the cobble stones almost 24 hours a day. So if one desires to be in the tourist area in seconds, it is convenient located. For us as a family with grown up children we wanted to be able to use the place to take a rest now and then from sightseeing and other activities. And it was just not a good location to do so. The noise outside and the facilities do not support this very much. It is mainly a place to sleep while not being out and about.
Beside of the heavy traffic there is also a new subway station being build RIGHT outside the windows. Most days the work started around 8 in the morning and went on until maybe 9 or 10 PM. One night two workers even started chopping up concrete slabs with an air hammer at 2 o'clock AT NIGHT!!. So as long as this is going on I would simply not recommend this place to anyone who is not fine with constant noise, dust and vibrations from traffic and heavy machinery.
The place itself is okay. We didn't cook any meals but had breakfast in the small living room every morning. it is not a room suitable for cozy conversation. The benches are hard, the sofa so small that only two people can sit on it, and there is not a lot of space in the living room at all. Every time we chose to open the windows to let some air in, talking to each other was not possible due to the noise outside.
Two of the sleeping rooms have small windows that do not open. They only let a little light in. But air can only be replaced through the door. In August that makes them a bit stuffy and damp. If you have a tendency for claustrophobia you would probably not like to stay in one of those rooms. The two other bedrooms where nice with French balconies and better equipped. One even with charming old furniture. Also they faced the slightly less busy street.
It is more odd than charming how the two sections of the apartment is connected through a door between two baths/toilets. This requires some communication unless you are very relaxed with bodily functions. Also tall people have to bend while using the facilities to not hit the head against the low ceiling.
One of the showers was quite nice and worked well. We didn't use the other one a lot as it was very low and we are all around 175-183 cm tall which would require us to bend down in the shower booth which was placed under the hallway staircase.
Some of the beds were okay while others were very hard and/or squeaked a lot. One was literally an old camping bed placed in an old bed frame and it was not very comfortable. I would not recommend to stay more that four people in this place if you are even the slightest picky about sleeping arrangements.
In the walls we often heard dust and materials dropping with the vibrations from the streets, and in the actually quite charming old entrance staircase there are several places where the wood panels are rotten to the extent where you can pick them apart with your fingers. Again, a little too worn down to be charming to our taste.
The people we communicated with where kind and always very quick to respond to our requests. They also supplied us with two 1,5 liter bottles of water in the fridge which we appreciated a lot as we arrived after closing time for the shops.
In the end we chose to spend a couple of days at the beach and on longer trips away from the city center to get away from the noise.
We should probably have researched better before choosing this place. For a group of party goers looking for a place to sleep between tourist activities and partying, this place has outstanding location. But for a week long family vacation I cannot recommend it.