Bottom line advice: DO NOT rent this home if you need all six rooms since one of the rooms is a “sewer room.” If you need five or fewer rooms, it’s a good option. The location is great, the house is spacious and well stocked. And the rooftop terrace is spectacular. For the most part, the management was responsive, and check-in was smooth (with lots of helpful tips on where to go and what to avoid). The house is convenient to a good supermarket, bakeries, and several nice restaurants and bars. For those needing six rooms and considering this home, read on.
We rented this home to celebrate my husband’s 40th birthday with ten of our friends, 12 adults total. With 6 couples, we wanted a home with six rooms so, according to its description, this place fit the bill. However, the first evening one of the couples complained that their ground level room had a horrible smell, to the point that they had trouble sleeping. Leaving the windows open wasn’t an ideal option since this room is street-level and there is some street noise and passersby. We thought the smell might be coming from the area rug so we decided to move it out of the room the next morning. However, when we pulled up the rug, we discovered that it was covering (along with a piece of plywood) what could best be described as an open sewer drain. We immediately contacted the property management to complain about the smell and they sent over a maintenance person (while we were out enjoying Seville) who we guess sprayed the ground floor rooms and bathrooms with a deodorizer. It didn’t work, and the overwhelming reek from the sewer quickly returned and making the room uninhabitable by anyone with a sense of smell.
We again contacted the property management and followed-up on our request that the couple be accommodated (at no additional cost) in one of their other properties. We were told that because it was the high season they were fully booked. Ultimately, the couple decided to check into a local hotel for the remainder of our visit and the “sewer room” went unused (with the doors firmed closed for the rest of the week).
We requested from the property management that the couple be refunded for the cost of the “sewer room” but were told by management that because this was an old home, such conditions were to be expected. While I agree that when you’re renting an older house you should expect some quirks (i.e. uneven floors, dark rooms, damp smell, odd room configurations), in 2019 you should be able to rent a house advertised at six rooms without one of the rooms reeking of open sewer. The management also indicated that they had never received complaints about this room or the smell. However, when I reviewed comments from previous renters again (see March 2019, November 2018, and September 2018), I found at least 3 reviews that refer to a smell emanating from a room in the house. I can only assume they’re also referring to the “sewer room.” It also looks from reviews that most people who have rented this home did not use all six rooms, so it’s plausible that the limited number of complaints (although three in less than a year already seems like a pattern to note) is because few have had the experience of sleeping in the “sewer room” (it’s the only room without its own bathroom).
I can only conclude that Management is aware of the issue of this “sewer room” but has decided to continue to advertise this as a six-room home, hoping most people will use five or fewer rooms. And when someone complains about the “sewer room,” they try to claim ignorance or hide behind the excuse that “it is an old home.” I would encourage someone from the property management to spend one night in the “sewer room” to see if they can continue, in good conscious, to describe this home as having six habitable rooms.