Gerard and Byron’s place is a good choice when you are planning to stay in Madrid for a few days and be out most of the time. The location is excellent, the hosts friendly and communicative and I would say it’s probably good value for money. However, after staying there for a month, I would not recommend it for long-term stays, and here’s why:
- the flat is VERY dark, in fact there is no time during the day when you don’t have to have the lights on. So it can be beautiful and sunny outside, but you’ll have no idea. As someone who works from home a lot, I found this very depressing and the biggest issue.
- The neighbours are pretty noisy, and you can hear EVERYTHING that goes on upstairs, including but not limited to people visiting the toilet, engaging in loud sex, having fits of smoker’s cough, playing the guitar/teaching singing lessons and having very loud conversations in the middle of the night. So earplugs for sleeping are a must.
- There were some technical issues, such as water not draining away in the shower, shower head leaking, broken towel hanger on the bathroom door.
- Finally, I was disappointed not to find any coffee making utensil, even though a coffee machine is visible in one of the photos. Drinking soluble coffee for a month is not an experience I’ll gladly repeat!