The apartment was lovely and spacious with a very contemporary style of decoration. We were very pleased with the overall cleanliness and amenities provided. The location is excellent for a base to tour the city. However there is no mention in the main listing of the amount of steps to this 3rd floor apartment. In the drop down box under Health & Safety it states: “Must climb stairs” but not 46! I would certainly not have booked this apartment had I’d known there were 46 steep steps up to the front door. My sister and I are not in the first flush of youth and found the stairs very challenging especially after a full day walking around Valencia, anyone with more mobility issues than ourselves would have found it impossible. In my opinion this should be listed more prominently in the main description.
We arrived in Valencia approximately 2.30 pm local time and after a gruelling walk from the metro carrying bags and dragging our suitcase we got hopelessly lost. I had messaged the host previously to say I would inform him of our ETA and we stopped at a café for a rest and a sandwich. By this time my sister’s phone battery had died and mine would not connect to the café’s WiFi and as we were unsure of data roaming charges, I did not send the host a text message but we didn’t think it would matter as long as we arrived on time. Our next mistake was to ring the doorbell of the wrong apartment. We had misinterpreted the Spanish address thinking it was No. 6 when in fact our apartment was no. 5 although there was no number on the door. We were greeted by a very angry host; Emiliano opened the door and immediately began shouting at us in front of the neighbour of No. 6 who had answered her door. After entering the apartment he continued to rant at us whilst stabbing his finger in my face shouting “she” “she did not message me!” “she!” We gathered he was angry because the journey from the airport should have taken us one hour, not three. To quote his text on Air BnB: “I speak little English, but I always try my best to communicate with my guests, I would like the same predisposition on your part.” We were unable to offer an explanation of how lost we had gotten trying to find our way there in the heat as he continued to shout over us. We felt totally humiliated and intimidated by him as he continued to order us aggressively to read the rules yet again, even though we had been sent them twice before. This was not the welcome we had expected. We were both very tired, hot and thirsty by this time and close to tears.
One other inconsistency in the listing was that it stated a light breakfast would be provided but it was not. This wasn’t a huge issue and in fact we bought our own breakfast items before heading out for the day. Unfortunately the food we had bought had to be thrown away as it was ruined when the power cut out for a day and we were not informed of the location of the fuse board/electricity switch upon arrival during the “reading of the rules”.
Emiliano did offer to come to the property to turn the power back on but unfortunately I didn’t read the message until much later in the day due to Wifi issues again.
Super Host? More like Super rude host!