When we walked in this apartment it smelled so strongly of mildew/poop we gagged. We tried to be optimistic and thought maybe the apartment had just been closed up for too long so we ran around opening all the windows (the windows that worked anyway..one of the bedroom windows upstairs is broken). I commented on the bad smell to the agency rep that met us at the apartment but that was met with a shrug. (I will say though that the agency rep met us on time and was very nice.) We tried to see if we could make it work with the smell. We left all of the working windows open, there was a can of spray deodorizer left right out in the open next to the TV (which may indicate the smell is a reoccurring problem). After several hours of trying to make it work with the smell we just couldn’t. We were getting headaches. So I contacted the agency and they immediately responded. Kudos. They sent an emergency rep to the apartment that night and she agreed it smelled but then actually said it’s just the way Seville smells. Lol. I can assure you that millions of people wouldn’t come to Seville if it smelled so badly of mildew/poop that it gave you a headache. I was legit worried for health reasons at this point. What was mildew doing to my sons allergies and to all of our lungs? However, since it clearly smelled they sent someone over the next day to do a treatment. The treatment worked but only partially. The smell was tolerable if you left all of the windows open. Problem was we closed them at night on the first floor so when we woke up the house smelled super gross again. I will give props to the agency staff for trying to fix things immediately but I think it’s BS that even though something was majorly wrong with the apartment they would only give us 50% of our money back if we left that first night. And we tried calling to get a room at many hotels that first night but they were all booked. (Christmas season) That’s how badly we wanted to leave because of the smell. We even offered to stay in another one of their properties that didn’t smell but they said none were available. It was a bad situation. But we had no place stay. So unless we were going to sleep on the streets with our kids we had to stay there, so we did.
As for the the rest of the apartment it was pretty shabby. Dark, but I knew about that from prior reviews. Old stained shower downstairs, old stained tub upstairs, the walk-in shower in the upstairs bathroom was fine though. The towels are stained and need to be refreshed. The two chairs in the living room area are a joke. Throw those out right now. The couch is super uncomfortable and a bit stained but I guess passable because it’s better than the chairs. The lampshade next to the couch appears broken. Because of the smell we never cooked in the kitchen. The place was too gross to cook in IMO. (because of the smell) We slept in the bed in the book room. The room is small, so the bed is small but I thought it was pretty comfortable. At least that room had an ounce of character. The other two bedrooms were soulless.
As for the positives, the location is right in the center. My recommendation is to eat your meals a little further out though. There is a lot of tourist food right around there. (The agency gave a list of recommendations for food in different neighborhoods which was nice.) And make sure you have a reservation for dinner every night. And if in a busy season maybe even for lunch! We struggled finding places to eat lunch. The city was very crowded for Christmas. The location was fun though.
Another positive was the rental agency. Yes it sucks they wouldn’t let me back out of staying on day one without me losing 50% of my money even though something was really wrong with the apartment. But they met us on time and were very responsive trying to fix the smell problem.
We have been staying in Airbnbs and other home rental services all over the world for several years now. I have to say this was the worst one we have ever stayed in. I’m sure a lot of it was the smell but it just felt gross. Bottom line: super nice and professional people but not a good apartment.