Our stay here was just wonderful!
This was our first ever Airbnb experience and so we were a little nervous before we arrived but no need to be at all.
Maria was brilliant. We couldn't have asked for more. She offered to meet us at the metro and they were waiting for us when we arrived with such a warm welcome and walked us to her apartment nearby.
The apartment complex felt very safe with a friendly 24 hour attendant at the gateway and the well looked after pool and grassed area in the middle. The halls and lifts and stairs was all fresh and clean.
The apartment was really nice. Crisp and clean but with personality and lots of space to put your own holiday bits in!
Maria is a generous and thoughtful host. She provided all the towels and linens and little things that just made life easy for us to get on with our visit and showed us how to work the cooking, washing machine and air-con unit etc.. The wifi was a real advantage for us to be able to surf and plan our trips. She had printed maps of metro and bus lines and annotated them with how to get in and out of the city centre and beach area and had bought a full map and little Lonely Planet guide that we could use while we were staying. She also had provided this lovely display of food gifts to get us started which was so kind when we arrived tired and hungry - milk, bread, juice, cheese, cakes, fruit - I just couldn't believe how thoughtful she was! It was clear that she wanted us to relax and be at home and we felt that from the first greeting at the metro until we left a week later.
The apartment gave us a great base for our trips into the city and the beach. We mostly used the metro and tram on a multi-journey ticket then walked into the city centre. But having access to the pool in the complex was great too for days when the heat just meant you wanted to laze a little and read. It was sometimes quiet and some times in full use but it never seemed over crowded and it was kept very clean and the neighbours in the block or at the pool were all friendly although our lack of spanish was a bit shameful.
I know I'm going on a bit but if every Airbnb experience would be like this I wouldn't go into a hotel again. We will be back to Valencia again and Maria will be our first option. Oh and I haven't mentioned the restaurant round the corner - MarinaAlta5 - a recommendation from Maria that we took up on Friday night and had gorgeous food!
Absolutely smashing!