Dreamy 1Bdr Sanctuary In The Heart Of Jerusalem

I reached out to the host a week in advance to request an early check-in at 13:00, since standard check-in was only from 16:00—which is already quite late. We were coming specifically for Shabbat and planned to check out a day early, so I asked if an earlier check-in could be arranged. The host agreed but only for an additional charge of 100 NIS. I tried to reason with them and explain that this wasn’t a customer-friendly approach, but they refused to budge. I ended up paying the fee just to make things work. On the day of check-in, I tried contacting the host starting in the morning—no answer via phone or WhatsApp. Around noon, someone finally responded and sent the check-in instructions. I arrived at 13:00 as agreed (and paid for), only to find the apartment in a completely filthy and disgusting condition. When I contacted the host to complain, their shocking response was: “If you want, you can cancel. I don’t care.” No apology, no sense of responsibility. How could I possibly cancel just two hours before Shabbat? Eventually, they sent a cleaning team, but that was another joke—they merely moved around some things and took out trash. The apartment was still dirty. I had to clean the table and chairs myself just so we could sit and eat without worrying about hygiene. To make matters worse, there was no hot water in the apartment. None. We had to endure cold showers all weekend. This was, hands down, the worst rental experience I’ve had. It completely ruined our Shabbat. The host was dismissive, unprofessional, and showed zero regard for customer service. Sadly, this isn’t my first bad experience with rentals in Israel—I had a similarly poor experience in Tel Aviv a year ago. It’s a shame, but I can’t recommend booking apartments here based on this experience.

I reached out to the host a week in advance to request an early check-in at 13:00, since standard check-in was only from 16:00—which is already quite late. We were coming specifically for Shabbat and planned to check out a day early, so I asked if an earlier check-in could be arranged. The host agreed but only for an additional charge of 100 NIS. I tried to reason with them and explain that this wasn’t a customer-friendly approach, but they refused to budge. I ended up paying the fee just to make things work. On the day of check-in, I tried contacting the host starting in the morning—no answer via phone or WhatsApp. Around noon, someone finally responded and sent the check-in instructions. I arrived at 13:00 as agreed (and paid for), only to find the apartment in a completely filthy and disgusting condition. When I contacted the host to complain, their shocking response was: “If you want, you can cancel. I don’t care.” No apology, no sense of responsibility. How could I possibly cancel just two hours before Shabbat? Eventually, they sent a cleaning team, but that was another joke—they merely moved around some things and took out trash. The apartment was still dirty. I had to clean the table and chairs myself just so we could sit and eat without worrying about hygiene. To make matters worse, there was no hot water in the apartment. None. We had to endure cold showers all weekend. This was, hands down, the worst rental experience I’ve had. It completely ruined our Shabbat. The host was dismissive, unprofessional, and showed zero regard for customer service. Sadly, this isn’t my first bad experience with rentals in Israel—I had a similarly poor experience in Tel Aviv a year ago. It’s a shame, but I can’t recommend booking apartments here based on this experience.