terrible owner and lousy apartment
Submitted: October 1, 2012
Stayed: September 2012
DO NOT STAY HERE!
We booked a 2 bedroom apartment from this same owner, on arrival day, he was supposed to arrange a private car to pick us up, but the driver never showed up. My daughter flew from L.A., we flew in from Hong Kong, after 20 hours of traveling, no maps nothing with us, cause we thought there would be someone to pick us up. It took us 3 hours to find our way to this apartment, only knowing that Michele the owner insisted we only booked the one bedroom apartment, no way! The confirmation email shown the 2 bedroom apartment number, he still insisted. Now, we were left in a foregin country with these local people who claimed that I don't understand English, he was so rude that even ask if I understand English! At last we had to settled cause we were so tired.
The apartment is far from the tourist area, it is actually off of any tourist map, the owner did not help to explain the area. Wi-Fi means an extremely slow net book with a portable USB modem, cannot contact to our smart phones. The only real double in the bedroom was so saggy , sleeping in it over 2 nights, I guarantee you have a back pain, the place is full of mosquitos, the 7 nights we were there, we cannot open windows. It has one small air condition in the living room that serve the whole apartment , it was so hot even at night. On our departure day, our flight was at 10:30 pm, we ask if we could store our luggage with them, while they actually just live next door, but they refused to do so, after a long begging they reluctantly accept us to leave the baggage inside the apartment no later than 4:00pm.
On the whole, this owner ruined our Rome trip, we just felt so disappointed!
Owner's Response: Mrs. Diana asked us via email for a 3 bedroom apartment but it wasn't available. So we proposed a 2 bedroom apartment and she accepted it. Obviously there was a difference in price since it was smaller. She complained it wasn't the apartment she booked even though I had the email to prove it.
The driver waited with a namecard at the airport for an hour and never saw her. We tried calling her but her cell phone was turned off. She contacted us after she was already on the train from the airport going to the center of Rome. Why didn't she call us sooner? Of course we absorbed the costs of the driver & his waiting time.
Mrs. Diana arrived to Rome at 8 am and didn't present herself at the apartment until 1 pm after we arranged for an early check-in. After we tried numerous times to reach her via cell. Meanwhile there is a train going from the airport directly near the apartment which takes only 40 minutes + 15 walking distance.
The apartment is only a 5 minute walk from Metro A "Ponte Lungo" station, by this line you can get in 5 stops to the main station "Termini" and few more stops to the Spanish Steps and Vatican City.
The area is "San Giovanni" which is not in the historical part of the city but is considered a centrally located neighborhood. We provide for the clients 2 maps: one of the historic center (everything inside the walls of Rome) and one very detailed map of where the apartment is located in relation to all the shops, restaurants, stores, markets, etc. We of course gave all this information to Mrs. Diana upon her check-in.
We apologize for the state of the mattress and we changed it a week after receiving your message.
The air conditioning was working properly (it's a 9000 btu). We also installed a second A/C in the bedroom.
The internet is provided by a fast internet key (14'4 mb speed) but in the near future this apartment will have wi-fi. It is a netbook computer which is not as fast as a normal computer but sufficient for navigating the internet.
Mrs. Diana asked us to store their luggage but we had other guests arriving the same day so we couldn't accomodate her.
Our clients cannot always leave their luggage in our family apartment because we cannot guarantee that we will be home when they need to take it in the afternoon anyway we did it for her. What Mrs. Diana didn't mention is that between her two bookings we took care of her very large bag for 10 days.
Helpful votes: 5/10
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