Graça Trendy Flat

Space - The space was great for 3 adults, 2 couples, or a family. I think 5+ adults would have felt a little crowded. Location - It was a very quiet residential location within 10-15 minute walking distance from a lot of great bustling spots in Alfama. If this is what you're looking for, it's perfect. Ambiance - The decor is cute and the common spaces in the apartment get lovely natural light. Unfortunately during the heat of the day (July) the shutters have to be closed in the living room so the AC can keep the room *slightly* cool, but the dining room windows can stay open in the back of the building where the sun doesn't shine directly on them. Host - The host waited for us to arrive and accommodated our delay. They responded pretty quickly when we had a problem with the key. Price - Overall, this apartment felt like a good value for the price, especially for a group of friends. Even with the negatives, I would stay again!

Cleanliness - There were hairs on the floors throughout the apartment when we arrived, including living room and bathroom. I had the feeling that maybe they sweep the wood and tile floors but don't vacuum as thoroughly as they should. Access - The building key was so difficult to use we thought we had been given the wrong key. They host told us theirs worked fine but another lady in the building said she has to pull the door a bit when opening it. We finally got ours to work but had to jiggle the door *just right* every time... it was so challenging we eventually made a game out of who could unlock the door the fastest. I think we were given a copy of a copy of a copy of the original key. Bathrooms - As some other reviews mentioned, there was an unpleasant musty smell in the 2 bathrooms. Maybe it's old pipes and perhaps not much to be done about it, however we didn't experience this in any of our other accommodations throughout Lisbon/Portugal, so perhaps a drain cleaning is required. AC - One of the AC units started making a horrible noise in the middle of the night on our last night which cost one of us some sleep, and it didn't stop when shut off. We didn't reach out to the hosts' emergency line, so I can't say whether they would have addressed it promptly or not.

good location, good communication with hosts, accommodation exactly as description and photos and comfy beds.

A struggle... 2 Stars To provide value, I think the low rating needs to be qualified because as a frequent traveler, we hope this provides perspective to future travelers. We visited in December 2022, stayed for 10 nights. We traveled as 2 adults, 3 kids (10/9/7). The nighttime temp was abt 10 celcius, daytime temp was about 15 celcius. On the positive side, the location is fine albeit the neighborhood is a little 'run down'. We drove a car, and could park road side and reasonably close. Though finding a park can be challenging. If you're taking the tram, 28 (the main tourist one) is 300m walk away and if you are a mountain goat, you'll love walking the hills of Graça. The Apartment It’s a quaint place, layout is a little weird and compact albeit workable. For a family of 5, it was a tight squeeze with limited room for luggages. The manager who greeted us kept reiterating that we need to lock the main door and making sure that its locked, which didn’t give us much confidence. Sleeping…soft mattress and worn out / extremely soft with no support pillows made for restless sleeping. And, No heating and bad ventilation didn't help. Atmosphere...a reverse cycle aircon system is installed throughout the apartment, but the heater didn't work effectively, and we had no need to try to cooling features. The manager did provide 3 portable mini electric heaters, but only 2 could work at the same time without tripping the circuit. This was frustrating for us. Bathrooms...clean and workable but very tight. The ventilation was hopeless, which meant the towels never really dried properly which obviously is known because it creates a visible mold and mildew issue. The mold and mildew issue is significant all the walls, kitchen dining area and its revolting. Not ideal for those with allergies. The parquet cracks in the kitchen, the bedroom doorknobs unhinged are just some of the things that need some upgrading.

Kitchen...workable but a few baffling omissions, and a “secret” compartment full of cutleries including wine opener, which took some time to find. Induction stove tops only work with a certain type of pan, one of the pans available doesn't work with induction... Also, they have an oven but no oven trays to use it nor gloves. Having a few BASIC condiments (salt, pepper, oil, coffee, tea) is very helpful for ensuring a nice stay especially for longer periods, they had NONE. Toaster – probably a newer one should help as it looks unloved. Washing Machine...we wasted hours dealing with this smart phone age unit. The machine did an OK job when it worked BUT was more difficult to deal with than your regular washer. The wifi was intermittent so the instructions don’t go through. The manager was able to assist remotely, wasting hours in the process waiting, trial and error. With no drying machine available, there was a half workable clothes racks for us but with bad ventilation, no heating and cramped space we gave up and use the 24 hr laundromat down the road. One the last day, the machine went berserk and decided not to work and we couldn’t get our clothes out. After more than an hour, having to switch off the main circuit board a couple of times, we finally had the wet clothes out of the washer. This issue with the machine consumes a lot of our time. And with no physical manual, we had to read through and endless pages of downloadable PDF version which took so much of our time to resolve it.