Madrid is an amazing city to explore.. staying in this place makes it much easy and convenient for one to explore this amazing city.
Pros of this listing
1. Location: location is right in the center at puerta del Sol. It's on a busy street and every part of the town is easily walkable. Metro station is just few blocks away that makes it super convenient
2. Apartment: This is a very good and cosy apartment. Exactly same as shown in the photographs. Comfortable for a stay of 2 people. Bedroom and the bed is little cramped and for my height it was short. But no major issues as such.
Cons:
Unresponsive Host/Horrible Chekin Experience :
I arrived at Madrid from Barcelona. I had informed my host about my departure from Barcelona and expected arrival time at Madrid. In the morning.
We took an uber to the apartment location as shown in the air BNB listing however we could never locate the apartment. I had two huge luggages and my wife was not keeping well.
Normally all Airbnbs provide very clear instructions on how to reach and checkin for thier listing mostly with photographs. in this case there were none. Just that you have to find a yellow building with green door and press the bell.
I dropped multiple chats to the host, called the host at least 20 times but didn't receive any response yet. This was since I left Barcelona.
Somehow I figured out Calle Barcelona street and apartment no 15 through locals . For convenience Google MANAMA DISCO, ITS RIGHT OPPOSITE.
On arrival as mentioned in the checking instructions i pressed the bell for the apartment.. no response.. waited there for almost 30 mins.. called the host, pinged on chat no response.
On top of it, tried reaching Airbnb support.. their bots told me I will receive a revert in 24 hours!!! This bothered me to the core.. with no food since morning apart from the breakfast, pulling heavy luggage and an unwell family member with super unresponsive Host and Airbnb I was completely exhausted and started searching options for my stay. Imagine doing this outside your country at such last moment in a place you dont know.
Thankfully Airbnb folks called back and the owner sent their domestic help to unlock the door and finally we got access to this apartment.
Overall this was my moment of truth with Airbnb. I have stayed with Airbnb in almost every part of the world. Nowhere did i have any issue at all, infact in Barcelona I stayed with a host who could not speak or understand English at all. Still all the stays were wonderful!! This experience made me totally sad.
WORD OF CAUTION. APARTMENT HAS NO LIFT AND THE STAIRS ARE VERY NARROW. ITS ON SECOND FLOOR I LITERALLY HAD TO PUT 30 KGS BAGS ON MY SHOULDERS AND CLIMB. Not recommended at all for elderly people.