Horrible host, good place (after you get rid of the sewage smell).

First of all, we never actually talked to Angel. We called the number he gave us to coordinate check-in and spoke with a woman who apparently works for him. We went to the apartment at 5:30 as agreed and found ourselves waiting outside in the rain with our luggage. We called the number again and the woman said Angel was on his way. We asked if we could have his number to call him directly and she refused.

At 5:40, a guy (not Angel) arrived to let us into the apartment. When we pointed out that he was late and that we had been waiting in the rain, he impatiently brushed us off, explaining that he was only 10 minutes late and that he has a bunch of other apartments to deal with.

We walked into the apartment and it immediately reeked of sewage. The smell was coming from the bathroom, so we opened windows and flushed the toilet. The guy couldn’t have cared less about the smell. He filled out some paperwork and then explained that we owed him 4.32€ for a “city tax”.

Admittedly, that’s not a lot of money. But the tax was not mentioned anywhere in the listing, and in any case no payment is supposed to be owed after the reservation is completed. He kept insisting, to the point that we were becoming uncomfortable. We were already on the phone with Airbnb about the sewage smell because we were concerned that we would need to move apartments (long story short, we got the smell out…I think the place had just been sitting too long without air/water circulation), so we asked Airbnb to confirm that we were not required to pay the extra money. Airbnb explained that off-site transactions are always prohibited, and specifically instructed us not to pay. We gave the phone to the guy so Airbnb could tell him directly.

After we got off the phone, he kept insisting. When we refused, he promised he would be back the next day to collect the money. He ended up not coming back, but we were concerned the whole time we were there that he might randomly show up again at the apartment.

After all that, the apartment itself was fine. Physically, it’s a very nice space, and seems to have been newly renovated. For the most part it’s clean, although you’ll find certain things that show it’s obviously not an apartment where someone lives (dust bunnies on the ironing board, filthy rug, broken coffee machine). Also, there were no extra trash bags, no shampoo/conditioner/soap in the shower, only two rolls of toilet paper, etc. Full disclosure, we never tried to call Angel to ask about that stuff, but can you blame us?