Legend Loft

The host was really sweet, but everything else was terrible. My mom and I had to share a room with just one bed and one quilt. The bathroom door was broken, and the hostel said they couldn’t fix it, so there was no door to the toilet. The shower was broken too, and the whole place smelled bad. Do yourself a favour and stay elsewhere.

I spent two months in the "Branca" room at Legend Loft, which I found through spot-at-home. The location worked for me, and the bed was comfortable. It was quiet while I was there, even though the walls are poorly insulated, because there were no more than five of us in the flat and most of the time everyone was very quiet. Still, the experience was disappointing and uncomfortable overall. I’d only suggest it as a last resort. The flat felt small to me, including the bedrooms, kitchen, and living room. It was generally humid, with no ventilation system, which seems typical of Lisbon’s older buildings, and cold in December because there was no heating. The equipment was only partly functional, in my view, because it wasn’t well maintained or supplied. There was no bottle opener, the frying pans weren’t clean and were burnt, the dining table was wobbly and fragile, and my cupboard had just one shelf. The sink in my private bathroom was so small it was barely usable. Furniture ranged from fragile IKEA pieces to heavy wooden furniture from the mid-19th century. It did the job for a few weeks with four flatmates who didn’t cook much, but more people would make it much less comfortable. Management was another problem. It was a bit hard to communicate with the manager because her English was limited, and there was no service or rental contract. Some rules were only explained when they became relevant, which led to misunderstandings. For example, spot-at-home said an extra person sharing a room would add 100 euros to the rent for a month, which was 450 euros for 30 days. My girlfriend visited for two weeks, so I figured she would owe 50 euros, especially since we had a daily rental "contract." The manager instead said it was 10 euros per day for less than two weeks, or 150 euros for 15 days, then 100 euros for a stay longer than 15 days. I took that to mean she wanted 100 euros for my girlfriend’s visit. At 550 euros for a room of about 10 m², that was clearly too much, even for two people. Explaining the rule when I arrived would have prevented the confusion and left me feeling less like I was being fooled. One detail in the spot-at-home listing also turned out to be false. It said there was a washing machine available in the accommodation. There wasn’t one in the shared bathroom or living room, though there was a machine in a room near the entrance. Tenants apparently weren’t allowed to use it unless the manager offered access at random, much like the cleaning service that was also advertised. Laundry access was a decisive reason I chose the place before coming to Lisbon, and my flatmates told me it mattered to them too. I felt the false listing was intentional to attract tenants. That may not be surprising given the economic situation after the health crisis, but it’s dishonest and a poor long-term strategy. When I raised it with the manager, she insisted I was lying and said the listing had never mentioned a washing machine. The listing was removed from the site during my stay.

This was the worst experience I’ve had. The host spoke very poor English. One day, she came into the bathroom with several craftsmen to inspect a waste pipe in the wall. They had to cut an opening, and it stayed open for the rest of my tenancy, so the flat smelled constantly. After I moved out, I also didn’t get my security deposit back and had to seek legal help to recover it.

The host was very warm, but the apartment wasn’t in as good shape as we’d hoped. One or two nights won’t kill you, but I can basically confirm Mateusz Nowakowski’s review.