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Review 2475: rent4days, Arc de Triomf

www.rent4days.com

Not Recommended. Review by Saint_Bambi from Australia

2bed/1bath apartment in Barcelona, Barcelona

When

November 2 2006, One week

Location

This apartment was located in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona. It was located in an extremely narrow street, which is all but impossible to find unless you have a big, thick street directory.

Nearby Amenities

There was a street of small shops nearby, but nothing with very much variety. You could buy the basics, but not if you're picky about brand quality. There was a cafe on the corner of the street, but they use UHT milk (i.e., Ultra Heat Treated milk to prolong shelf-life) to make their coffee, so be warned!

The House/Apartment

The building is historical, and is shabby on the outside. The stairwell is also shabby. The apartment is on the second European floor (American third floor) NOT the first floor as stated on the website. The apartment itself is in reasonable condition.

It has a double bedroom, a single bedroom, a living room, bathroom and kitchen.

The apartment wasn't very peaceful. The upstairs neighbours enjoyed walking around in high-heeled shoes and re-arranging their furniture in the middle of the night; the across the road neighbours are renovating and the builders like to play loud music; and there are noises from a nearby bar that echo through the narrow streets.

You can view the apartment directly: Arc de Triomf.

Garden

There is no outside area, despite the website specifying that the apartment had a balcony.

Furnishings/Cleanliness/Living Areas

The furniture was okay. The apartment was reasonably clean, although the shower curtains were mouldy; we found a filthy tea towel in one of the kitchen drawers.

Bedrooms/Bathrooms

The bedrooms are minute. If I opened my backpack in the single room then I couldn't open or close the door. In fact, the room was so small I felt claustrophobic with the door closed, and had to sleep with it half open.

The bathroom is also extremely small, the shower curtains have mouldy bottoms, and unless you have a degree in shower-curtain-arranging you will flood the bathroom each time you take a shower. There also wasn't enough hot water. After a two minute shower the hot water ran out, and took ages to replenish. Pity the person who takes the second shower.

Kitchen

Surprisingly, the kitchen was okay! There was a microwave oven, electric kettle, coffee maker, four-burner stove and a fridge. There were enough pots, pans, cutlery and crockery for making a decent meal.

No tea towels were provided.

Problems or Bonuses

Bad surprises. We thought the apartment looked much more welcoming on the Internet. The photos on the Internet make it look much larger and "homier" than is reality. In fact, the rooms are minuscule and the apartment has all the character of processed cheese.

Agency and Representatives (and price)

The agency, rent4days, was terrible. We have never had such a bad experience with an agency. It was so bad, I hardly know where to begin, but I'll try (this is the abridged version):

Despite us listing an arrival time on our booking form of 4-5pm, and then ringing the agent from the airport to tell him we were on our way, we had to wait half an hour for him to arrive! There we were, on the street, with all our bags and valuables waiting for someone who should have been there to greet us.

The agent, when he did arrive, offered no apology and demanded payment straight away. He gave no explanation of how anything in the apartment worked, where nearby amenities were or where we were on a map (the street is tiny). When we pointed out that the apartment wasn't really like what was on the Internet and that we weren't happy, he didn't care at all. He just said that if we didn't like it then we would have to leave.

We refused to leave, and the agent became rude and threatening. He told us we should go to head office if we weren't happy. Here we were, two women, in a strange city, and this agent was telling us to go to head office to sort it out. Heaven only knows where this head office was, or how we were to get there, especially as night was falling.

To make matters worse, there were no blankets in the apartment, and once again, the agent didn't care.

The funny thing was that during all this time, another customer kept ringing this agent, asking him where he was. This other customer was getting angrier and angrier at being kept waiting too! And the agent said he had to leave us (another angry set of customers) to go and see these other people.

To cut a long story short, it took us 45 minutes of arguing with this agent, and ringing head office to make some progress. We refused to pay the agent, and instead made plans to see the manager in his office the next day. The agent eventually left, abandoning us in a strange city. How's that for gallantry?

Fortunately, when we saw the manager the next day, he was very apologetic for the way we'd been treated by the agent, and offered us a reduction as compensation.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

Not only did this agent screw up our check in, he also screwed up our check out! Since we were leaving early on our departure day, we couldn't arrange for an agent to be present during our check out. Instead, we rang the agent a couple of days earlier to arrange an inspection on the night before we left. This isn't usually necessary, but after our horrible time at check in, we didn't want any "misunderstandings" to find their way onto my credit card.

We made an appointment for the agent to come by between 7-8pm on the evening before we left. At 8.10pm he still hadn't turned up. When we rang to ask where he was, he said that HE HAD FORGOTTEN THE APPOINTMENT! It took a lot of insisting that he come around NOW! Not the next morning, or in an hour, but NOW! He eventually arrived twenty minutes later and signed that the apartment was being left in good condition.

Mum and I were so incensed at this agent's bad manners that we actually wrote a letter of complaint to the manager of the agency. We never received a reply.

We have never EVER encountered such a bad attitude from anyone during any of our rental experiences. The rudeness, bad manners, and "I don't care" demeanour of this agent was incredible. We wasted two evenings and a morning dealing with his incompetence when we should have been out enjoying Barcelona.

Do you recommend this vacation rental to others?

I would never recommend that anyone stay in this rental, unless you're completely masochistic or want to know what it's like to deal with a real life Basil Fawlty.

Things to do in this area

It was easy to walk to all the big tourist sites from the apartment - La Rambla, La Sagrada Familia etc.

This review is the opinion of a Slow Travel member and not of slowtrav.com.

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