Hidden Gem 1 near Praça do Comércio

The apartment is nice, situated in the center of the city, in walking distance for the city center. The street is full of restaurants, very good place to have dinners in a romantic and cosy atmosphere. Form the window you can see the river, the port. Great stay!

Central apartment near the sea, transportations and shops/restaurants. Renovated and comfortable.

Old building, bad smelling in common spaces and 3 floors without elevator.

I got a code before arrival for how to open the box and retrieve keys. The code worked on the first try and it was easy to find. It was good for accessing the apartment after normal check-in hours.

The lock on the door itself is not easy to open. It took me three minutes to open the door the first time. You have to rotate the key multiple times to unlock the door.

the proximity of everything was great

bathroom was moldy. there was not enough toilet paper, there was construction in the morning preventing us from sleeping, and it was just very damp/humid everywhere (bed, sofa, etc.)

Good location

No major issues first two nights of five night stay, but NO RUNNING WATER on third night (February 7, 2023). Could not flush toilet, shower, clean, cook, etc.! Host is not the owner. He said the issue was fixed the next afternoon. I was excited to go home and shower, but when I arrived, there was still NO WATER. The property is now uninhabitable. Portugal is not a third world country and this is unacceptable. Miguel Garcia was unresponsive to both my friend and me via WhatsApp message and calls. After hours of waiting for his response, I had to decide whether to stay OR risk not getting a refund/finding new accommodations. This was not something I imagined I would have to deal with while on vacation. I could have booked another booking.com property, but I had just had the worst experience (I have traveled to 32 countries so this is not my first rodeo) and simply could not deal with another problem. I went back to tried and true Airbnb. I informed him that I had taken all of my belongings and vacated the property at 18:00 on February 8, 2023. I did not stay in the property for 2 out of 5 nights. He did not offer me a refund of the last two nights even after he was informed that there was still no water. He said he was "trying to solve a problem that is not my fault as best as I can. I am on it!" That is simply not good enough. The common sense thing to do, would be to apologize for my experience and offer me a refund. I reached out to Customer Service and was given a 15% compensation, which amounted to about one night's stay. I appreciated the gesture, but was very shocked when they asked me to contact the host to request the refund. That's like telling me to ask for help from my abuser. I called Customer Service. The service rep and manager were empathetic, but could only offer up apology after apology. They informed me that they had also contact the host, no response. So there are no consequences to his actions. Do better! BBB, here I come.

Mainly the location and the fact that the host was supportive and open to the complaints.

The apartment wasn't clean, short of almost everything. I would recommend the host to improve cleaning services and fix all broken furnishings.

Pleasant sunny apartment, in a good location, close to city transport, many pleasant sights nearby