My wife and I loved this apartment in many ways. That said, there were a few things that disturbed us greatly about our month-long experience living here.

THE GOOD

Beautiful terrace with a view atop the roofs of central Madrid.

Location can’t be beat, in close proximity to everything tourists come to Madrid to see and do.

Elevator (most of the time)

Clean and furnished well.

We arrived 15 minutes late of the hour we were set to arrive, and they didn’t charge us. (I guess this is a good thing, because the girl who checked us in definitely wanted to charge us extra, but her management company told her “no”)

THE BAD

NO DRYER, despite the listing saying there was a dryer, the apartment only has a washer. Not only was it deceptive of the person listing, they ignored and dodged my questions about this for weeks. In the end I asked for a small discount since the apartment did not come as described. This too was ignored. When AirBnB lists a “dryer” they are not meaning a line-dryer. They mean a mechanical dryer. At other places I have stayed on AirBnB they were upfront about this, not here.

POOR RESPONSE RATE – We were never explained how to use the washer, so our clothes came out sopping wet. After ringing them out in the sink for weeks and asking for guidance, they finally sent someone to explain the washer to us. Literally 3 weeks into staying here.

NO FOLLOW THROUGH - Upon checking in we found that there was no working battery in the AC. The girl who checked us in thought the whole AC was broken. Fortunately we were able to switch out the TV remote batteries to get it working. It’s a good thing, because after telling us that they would be back in 2 days with batteries, they were not back with batteries for 3 weeks.

CATS – The neighbor has cats, which she has no problem letting out her window onto your private balcony. I found this irritating. The apartment owner said there was nothing they could do about it, and to take it up with cat owner. Which I did, and the problem stopped, but such a pain to have to deal with this.

MANAGEMENT COMPANY – Don’t expect any kind of warm welcome here. This apt is definitely run by a management company and is a business for them. Once you’ve paid they make very little effort to make sure you’re comfortable. Hope everything works, and be prepared to roll with the punches if it doesn’t. The person that checked us in seemed very put-out by the fact that we were 15minutes late.

ELEVATOR – It’s a 6 story building. The tiny elevator worked most of the time. But I would say for about 25% of our trip it was broken. Not recommended for an older person who would have difficulty with stairs.