The communication before arriving was amazing, the host was very quick with responses and helpful with any questions I had to, we had agreed prior to landing that we would be allowed to drop our suitcases off earlier than check in time which was 3pm, all I had to do was inform him that I was 10mins away and he would let the cleaners know and they would let us in. This wasn’t the case. We arrived at around 2pm ish, decided to buy some things from the grocery store across the road after messaging to say we were 10minutes away. There was no reply. We stood outside the apartment entrance hoping for a response, i then looked at the check in details and found where it said I could ring the bell for the apartment, I did this several times and nothing happened, we couldn’t even get into the building. We eventually made it into the building as someone came out and let us in. It then took us a few minutes to work out where the apartment was as the instructions said it was opposite the lift which wasn’t true as that was where the stairs were situated. At this point check in time had arrived. We had an electronic key, so we tried it on a few doors and eventually found the apartment and got in. The apartment was as described in the photos, however the open space was a little ‘terrace’ which had no air flow and little light. The toilet seat was broken when we arrived and there wasn’t anything to make a drink. The more we looked around the apartment the more we realised it needed a lot of work, there was a beam in the living room which was wobbly, the air conditioning either didn’t work or was really weak and you could see where paint touch ups were done, additionally the shower door was hardest thing to close, it would fly open whilst you were showering. The apartment was in an amazing location, very close to metro stations and restaurants which we used everyday. We went to the beach on the first day and when we came back the electronic key wasn’t working, it just kept saying it had no power. Luckily we had a key that was left in the apartment to get into the main building (we later realised we weren’t suppose to have these keys), so I just assumed maybe the main door one wasn’t working, i then tried using the electronic key on the apartment door and it said the exact same. I tried messaging the host via Airbnb messages (our only form of communication) but there was no response at all. We found a number that was listed under the host but when we rang this it simply said the number wasn’t allocated to anyone. We waited a while (friends had to go to a bar to use the toilet) I ended up giving out my number in the Airbnb chat to which the host rang me after about 40mins of waiting in the hallway of the apartment block. We had his friend come over with a key and see what the problem was. The apartment had a power cut which meant the Wi-Fi and electronic key wasn’t connected so we were locked out. We would have been left outside if it wasn’t for the keys left behind. The friend was very apologetic and tried his hardest to find the source, he got an electrician to come round and they did a temporary fix for the night so that we could stay in the apartment safely. We were given a key to the apartment just in case it happened again. The next day we went out and the electronics were fixed however when we came back the light fixture which was causing the problem was taken but the wires were just left hanging from the ceiling.
The apartment served its purpose as a base to sleep in as we were out the majority of the day everyday. I would recommend this apartment if you are planning on not staying in for long periods of time. It was a very dark apartment with not a lot of sunlight coming in, the fans in the two double bed rooms were amazing. I would recommend to just use actual keys for getting into the apartment as the electronic keys caused problems. The host was very apologetic and helpful after the issues with the apartment just lacked communication beforehand.