Apartamento en Edificio Primer Línea al Mar, a orillas de la Laguna del Diario

The stay was okay overall. The property is about a 10 minute drive from downtown Punta del Este, which was convenient and the home itself is beautiful with a lovely view overlooking the beach. However, you do need to cross the road to access the beach. The home includes two beach chairs and an umbrella, which was a nice touch. There are also three pools - a kids pool next to a larger pool, plus a separate adults only pool (great if you are not traveling with children). The playground for children was another great perk. That said, there were a few downsides. The kitchen lacked basic essentials like salt, pepper and cooking oil, which was surprising since most rentals we’ve stayed in provide these. There is a laundry area but no detergent was included. The dryer was extremely loud that we ended up air-drying our clothes outside instead. Additionally, only four bath towels were provided for five guests, and there were no beach towels available, which would have been helpful given the location. There is a designated parking spot but I would suggest avoiding it - the entrance to the underground parking is very tight and difficult to navigate. We ended up parking on the street instead. Overall, while the property has some nice features, I don’t think we would choose to stay here again.

The main issue for us was the payment process and communication with the host. Before our stay, Booking.com didn’t ask for our credit card, so payment was supposed to be handled at check-in. Since we’re not comfortable carrying or paying large amounts of cash, I had messaged the host ahead of time to ask if PayPal would work, and he said yes. A few days before our trip, I then received a message through Booking.com saying the host was requesting that we cancel the reservation, which was really confusing since we already had a confirmed booking. When I asked him about it, he said it was an “automatic” message from Booking.com, which honestly didn’t make much sense. When we arrived, we were put in an uncomfortable position where the host insisted on cash upfront, despite our earlier agreement. After traveling all that way with our kids, we didn’t have much choice in the moment. We ended up paying $200 in cash and the rest via PayPal, which he eventually agreed to, but not very willingly. On our last day, we paid the remaining balance in cash. Looking back, the whole situation felt a bit off and stressful, and with those early red flags, we probably would have chosen a different place to stay.