Let’s start by saying the apartment itself was perfect. Location, amenities, decor all lived up to expectations. However, this was overshadowed by the poor customer service provided by the host.
We were in touch with Esther on the days leading up to our arrival to let her know when and how we would be arriving. We sent two further text messages when we arrived at the airport and again in the taxi to let her know our ETA but the host did not respond. When we arrived, we called numerous times from the street and eventually the host answered. We had been waiting approx 40 minutes before she arrived...without the keys. By the time a colleague arrived to let us in, it had been over an hour.
Secondly, Esther sent a message three days before we arrived to let us know there would be construction noise from a nearby building during our stay from 09:00 - 18:00, but it wasn’t known how much this would affect our stay. When we arrived we realised that this was a large and ongoing project on the site next door and that it had been going on for weeks before we arrived. The drilling noises actually began at 07:00 each morning and it was, to say the least, astonishingly loud inside the apartment.
After several more unanswered phone calls and messages to the host, we were offered a sub par alternative apartment or a 30% refund and we chose the latter. But in truth, if Esther had been transparent from the start, we would not have chosen to stay at this apartment. It is hard to publish a review of this nature, but the issues we experienced had a huge impact on the enjoyment of our trip and we would hate for this to happen to anyone else.