Great location, poor management
Submitted: January 27, 2013
Stayed: August 2012
We stayed in the apartment for four months and have noticed the following imprecision in the provided description of the apartment:
1. There is no “bedroom with queen size bed”, but rather a big walk-in closet, i.e. a windowless portion of the studio, surrounded by a dry wall where the bed is. The photo with the caption ”Queen size bed in the bedroom” shows the actual bed which is a fold-up bed with a width closer to a twin than a full bed. Also, the lights on the headboard never worked. The chest drawer shown in the picture was not there.
2. The owner states that the apartment sleeps 2 to 4 people. While this is literally correct, the apartment has neither a dining table nor 4 chairs to feed such a group of people. The apartment has a tiny “desk” and one accompanying chair. The photo with the caption “Kitchen open to living space” shows two bar chairs adjacent to “the bar”, but the “bar” does not provide any leg room.
3. The owner lists an oven --- there was no oven.
In addition, during our stay we faced several persistent and disappointing problems following problems:
1. Internet was not available for about 6 weeks during our stay. Before signing the contract, I specifically discussed the Internet availability with the owner and explained that good Internet is of critical importance for me, because I would be telecommuting with my work. The owner assured me that she is an IT person herself and that there will be no problems with Internet. Yet, there was a huge problem when the apartment suddenly lost connection. The owner tried to help me out by inviting me to her own apartment. That was nice of her, but not really a practical solution.
2. The owner states that the apartment is quiet. Yet, it was not so at all during 1.5 month of heavy, noisy construction on the floor below.
3. We had to deal with hidden plumbing leaks without any assistance from the owner. For two weeks of August only the toilet remained in a working state in the apartment, while shower, kitchen/bathroom sinks, dishwasher, and laundry machine were inoperable until the source of the leak was identified as an improperly installed valve on the input of the dishwasher.
4. The heated towel rack in the bathroom was inoperable for the most of our stay. It was replaced only after numerous requests.
5. In October the apartment became infested with mosquitoes. The owners’ advice was “Go, by some anti-mosquito staff”. We dealt with the mosquito infestation problem on our own.
Recommended for:
Sightseeing
Owner's Response: 1. There is no “bedroom with queen size bed”, Owner reply: All depends on the size of the tenants :) If they are big people than the bed will be small :)- Also it depends on what they are looking as confort. We remind you that it's not a five stars hotel.
2. The apartment has a tiny “desk” and one accompanying chair and no dinning table for 4- Owner reply: Yes, this appartment is conceived for buisness men, couples and families on vacation. When you are on vacation you will like to eat outside more than inside. Althought there is a bar (I didn't get what the tenant means with leg room, the tenant can use the bar chairs to put there legs) There is also four additional chairs that can be used to eat around a table (exists in the flat)
3- The microwave DOES oven at same time. We have explained it to the tenant upon his arrival.
Regarding the problems the tenant faced (Most of them external prob):
1- Internet not available- I just confirmed that internet is working in the flat when tenant has asked. Unfortunately (and these things happen) France Telecom has done some work in the neighborwhood which has cut the connection of our phone line and since we are with another operator other than France Telecom (competitor) they took their time to repair their damage.
We have provided tenant with an usb key to have internet everywhere but its buisness need was to have a bigger bandwith. We coudn't do anything about it.
2- The noisy construction in floor below- We couldn't ask the neighbour to stop his contruction :)
3- It's not true that the plumbing leaks were hidden- These are also problems that happen- We didn't know that the leaks exist although we have repaired problems of this kind before the tenant arrive but apparently other problems occured. And no luck it happens when we were on vacation 4 000 Km away. Our tenants were greatly helped by a very good neighbour of ours in the building.
4- The towel rack was working when the tenant arrived but some misuse of function button have put it out of order so we replaced it after one month without charging anything to the tenant.
5- Oh the mousquittos, the tenants have forgotten to mention that they were doing strawberry jam before the mousquittos attacked. And luckily it has been resolved by using normal spray as we suggested and we did't need to call in a company to clean the flat. We will not recommend future tenants to do "jam home made" in our appartment.
Helpful votes: 2/3
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