PROS: Begoña’s apartment is in the perfect location for the art museums, the Retiro, and general sightseeing around central Madrid. It’s on a pedestrian street, and is pretty quiet at night (except on Saturdays when the party goes until 3am). It’s a good size for 1-2 people, and has a functional kitchen with a washing machine. Good shower and bathroom. Cute terrace looking onto the street (but keep the blinds shut as you can see straight into the apartment across the narrow street). Begoña is easy to communicate with, and check in was simple.
CONS: For me, the apartment had 3 fixable problems that drop it from a 5-star stay to a 3.5-star stay. I emphasize “fixable” because they are easy to change, and I would be a surprise if a considerate host like Begoña ignored the feedback.
1. The bed linens and towels smelled awful.. like sweaty body odour. I couldn’t find any detergent in the flat, so I washed them in the 90-degree cycle of the washing machine.. this fixed the problem, but then I had to wait for the sheets to dry before sleeping. I could not wash the square decorative pillows, and these smelled so bad that I had to keep them in a corner to avoid being near them.
2. The living room and kitchen have LED lightbulbs, and these particular ones seem to have a low flicker rate, which made me dizzy within 2 minutes of turning them on. (Some people are more sensitive to this, but google it if you don’t believe me.) I had to spend the entire weekend with only the stovetop light and the bathroom mirror light on because they were the only ones with normal bulbs.
3. There’s no hand soap in the kitchen, only in the bathroom. And no shower wash either. Both are inexpensive so would be great to add to the flat.