I had booked this place for one week and we were really excited to start our Chilean adventure there.
**The location:
It’s very central, close to all attractions and 2 metro stations nearby, which we never used, because you can pretty much walk everywhere. It’s about a $30 cab ride from the airport and Uber is available widely.
**Check-in Process:
Nicolas had provided a WhatsApp number to communicate ahead of time, which was nice. Entry to the unit is via a secret code that is generated each time a new guest is checking in, and provided to the guest a few hours before check in via WhatsApp.
I had previously asked for an early check in, because our flight landed early mornings and was told that it would be ok to come in at 1 pm instead of 3.
Upon arrival at the airport after a 22 hour flight from Canada and going through very strict Arrival COVID routine, I messaged the owner to let him know that we’ll be there at 1 and to get the entry code. He said the place was being cleaned after the previous guest and not ready yet, he’ll text me when ready. So we had to hang around the airport another 2 hours ( because Chilean COVID protocol at the time dictated that newly arrived travellers must go directly from airport to the place of their accommodation and stay there until the result of negative test comes in which is usually 10-12 hours.)
To make a long story short, we finally arrived at the apartment around 3 -the original check in time- just to find out that the entry code given to me a couple of hours earlier did not work. Mind you without wifi, we had no way of communicating with the owner through WhatsApp either. We tried the wifi code while standing next to the entry door hoping we can connect, but no luck. The unit is on the 12th floor, in one of several buildings in the back of a large complex. Having nowhere else to go and not able to call the owner, we had to drag luggages quite a distance back to the front entrance of the complex where there is a security office to ask for wifi, which was not available. The language barrier added to the dilemma as we speak no Spanish and no one knew English. Anyway, after seeing the exhausted and terrified look on my face, a nice man used his own cell phone to call Nicolas and put me on to speak with him. Sure enough, he said very casually that the entry code he had given me a couple of hours earlier was from the previous guest😖 and gave me the new entry code.
**The unit itself:
After finally getting in, we were so exhausted that we didn’t care much to check anything. Just tried to set up the wifi and get some rest. Sure enough the wifi did not work. Same story again. We had no way of contacting him without the wifi to let him know the wifi is not working! And this time the nice man in the front office who was helping me call the owner was gone too. So we had to walk around the streets around the place to find a local store that sold phone SIM cards and bought a local chip and called the owner to report the wifi failure. He said he’ll call the provider. Long story short, it wasn’t fixed until the next day and even then, it was very sketchy and extremely slow, maybe due to concrete buildings and heavily populated area reducing bandwidth. Anyway, if you’re going to be fully dependent on wifi, it’s not reliable at all.
**Condition of the place:
The pictures on the listing look very nice; problem is I don’t know how many years (if not decades) ago they were taken. Although the furniture pieces are all there, they are completely worn out, torn or scuffed and dirty. The area rugs are soooooo dirty and dingy that we couldn’t touch them with bare feet. There’s dust/hair balls collected along the floor/ wall edges and corners of the room, indicating that the cleaning crew has not done a deep cleaning in months if not more.
The shower is a hand-held shower resting on a metal piece that is loose and moving, so once you run the water, it won’t stay in place and falls off the holder, so you’d have to hold it with one hand and use the other hand to wash yourself. I had a hard time washing my hair like that.
The dishes are far fewer than what’s pictured. You’d expect at least 2 to 4 of each piece of plates, glasses, etc which was not the case. Some plates were placed in the cabinet without being washed and showed visible food stains.
The bed is somewhat too hard and squeaky. Bedspread had visible large stains on it.
** Overall impression:
Although we had very high hopes for our weeklong Santiago stay, due to the condition of the place, we decided to check out after 2 nights and check in to a hotel for the rest of the stay.
In my opinion, this unit does not live up to its promises and I wouldn’t consider going back, nor would I recommend it to other travellers.