The good:
-the apartment is very large and clean
-the kitchen has wonderful appliances like a sturdy blender, lemon juicer, and more.
-the host had a large booklet of instructions on how to use everything in the place
-the location is really convenient if you want to be away from the party areas. Which we did. But you can still walk to the green belt in 20 minutes, to the historic area in 30 minutes and to the metro in 5 minutes.
-favorite places in the neighborhood: the Indian place downstairs, Bombay Aroma. Every dish is great. But unless you're a savage, do NOT get the phall. It's explosive. Rogel, an Argentine coffee shop, is about 10 minutes down Av Cid. Best cafe bom bons in town. And the snacks are yummy.
The not so good:
-the air conditioner does not work. It turns on and there is noise and air but no. We tried it a few times. Double checked with the Host and the most the temp went down in 4 hours was 2 degrees C. Not helpful during a heatwave. We bought fans. And melted all summer. It was not good.
-the front door is a smart door and would make random sounds that sounded like someone was coming in when both of us were already there. Hardly a deal breaker but odd for sure.
-the electricity is not included. You have to go to the roof and tell them the meter readings so that they can calculate the totals. It says in the listing that utilities are not included but I wanted to mention that with the cost of the apartment compared to the local prices, this seems excessive.
- You MUST let the cleaner come over and clean. We are remote workers and said that we preferred to clean ourselves instead of having our workday disrupted for cleaning service. They absolutely would not take no for an answer. The cleaner spent a large part of the time talking loudly on her phone too. It was super disruptive.
-There is an office with two tables. One is a desk with a computer monitor that does not work. When we mentioned this the host said that it worked. Nothing more was done. The other table is higher than a desk and not really great with office chairs. Which, in fact, is good, because they only had one office chair and one....outdoor chair with a cushion on it.
Overall, for the cost of this apartment, the pluses did not outweigh the negatives for us. If we go back to Valencia we are definitely visiting Bombay Aroma but we are NOT booking this apartment again.