Elegance Apartment

The apartment was spacious, clean, and fully equipped for our two nights. It's in a great location: a supermarket is a three-minute walk away, the metro is five minutes away, and Hofburg Palace is an easy 30-minute walk. Underground parking is available nearby at No. 73 for 15€ per day. Even though it's near an intersection, the insulation is good and we didn't hear traffic with the window closed. There are several air conditioners. The owner was hard to communicate with because they speak only Chinese or German, which is why I'm giving four stars. The towels are thin, as others have said, but that didn't bother us. Otherwise, I recommend the apartment.

The bathroom smelled disgusting, like fish. Aside from that, the apartment was good, but dealing with the host and their organization caused a lot of stress and annoyance. The listing included a bed that wasn't there. We were told the listing was wrong, with no apology, fix, or compensation. We had to bring it up three times before they said they'd talk to their team about how to apologize. The Wi-Fi was down when we arrived and took 24 hours to fix. That also left the smart lock system for entry out of order. They accused us of unplugging it, even though the Wi-Fi was the problem. A friend was left outside in the middle of the night for 30 minutes until a neighbor came home. The invite link for the phone-operated smart lock didn't work either. We had to work out which part of the URL was the invite code and enter it manually in the app. If there's a power cut or Wi-Fi problem, or your phone battery dies, you could get locked out. Communication was very poor. They said someone would come at an unspecified time to fix the Wi-Fi and door, then messaged hours later asking us to let the maintenance man in. We'd been out for hours by then and wouldn't be home until much later. They told us to take the key in the meantime, but there was no key visible and no instructions on where to find it.

I booked the apartment three months ahead for a big family trip. The day before we were due to arrive, they messaged to say they couldn't charge my credit card and would cancel the booking, which was through booking.com. My card worked fine, and another property charged it successfully that same day. I called to ask what was going on and was told they accepted debit cards only. I asked for five minutes to switch the card to a debit card so they could charge it, and they agreed. But right after that conversation, they cancelled the booking without trying to charge it. I get a notification each time a charge is attempted. We had to scramble to find somewhere else at the last minute and definitely paid more. Terrible customer care.

We stayed in the penthouse suite at elegance apartment and had a wonderful time. It was a calm, quiet, luxurious apartment, and the host was hospitable. We also had a nice breakfast in the morning. I'll come back next time.