Apartments Minceta Old Town

We had booked Apartments Minceta Old Town for June 10-14, 2023, at around €700 for four days. The listing and most reviews sounded great, with photos showing a small living area and kitchenette, and it advertised a private bathroom and free parking. What we found on arrival was very different. My wife went in with the owner, Mr. Pavo, while I waited with the car nearby, and came back devastated. The room was small and compact, had only a shared bathroom, and getting to it meant climbing three steep flights of stairs that the description hadn’t mentioned. This was a room, not an apartment. The free parking was about a 20-minute walk away and wasn’t guaranteed; parking nearby cost about €80 a day. The room smelled of alcohol and didn’t feel pleasant. My wife said Mr. Pavo told her cancelling would be no problem and that he’d arrange a refund. I called him right after and heard the same thing over the phone: we should take our luggage and return the keys, and he’d handle the money. Once we did that, he stopped answering. Booking later told us he was refusing the refund. When we eventually got him on the phone because he couldn’t find the keys, he denied promising a refund, hung up, and didn’t respond to later calls or messages. He also blamed Booking for the misleading photos, though Booking tried several times to persuade him to refund us. We believe he promised a refund to keep the payment and rent the room again. We urge other travelers to avoid the property and Mr. Pavo. We later found similar accounts on Trip Advisor and Booking, but unfortunately only after this happened to us. We plan to file a formal complaint and believe the phone records could verify what was said. We want to help prevent others from going through this. Booking should also take at least some responsibility, stop any further activity by the owner over the false advertising and alleged lies, and check whether the positive reviews are legitimate.