Sao Bento Cozy Apartments-by LU Holidays

The damp smell was especially noticeable in the apartment. I later realized ground-floor places in Lisbon may be a bad choice: the buildings can be lovely but old, poorly insulated, and unheated in winter, so moisture builds up in the walls, particularly downstairs. The apartment was also much darker inside than the Booking and AirBnB photos suggested. There weren’t enough windows to light the whole place, and only the entrance and bedroom had direct daylight. Check the pictures carefully. We chose this rental because the listing said “Terrace with garden view.” When we arrived, what was shown in the photo did not match what we found, so we decided to leave and request a refund. The LU Holidays manager was contemptuous, and we never got our money back. We’ve been visiting Lisbon regularly for 10 years, and this was one of our few bad experiences there. The problems with the apartment and the way LU Holidays handled them felt unprofessional. We dealt with them only once and wouldn’t recommend them. They wasted our time and money and left us with a very bad impression of the Portuguese. That said, this was an exception. Portuguese people are generally very nice and friendly.

At around 60 euros per person, per night, this apartment was hugely overpriced for what we got. The owner gave no refund and didn’t even apologize. In my view, it needs a real upgrade or a lower price. There were problems throughout the place: the oven didn’t work, which we found out on Christmas Eve, and there was no adequate replacement. The shower had fungus, its doors wouldn’t close properly, and water ended up all over the bathroom floor. The glass table was dangerously unstable. We were given plastic wine glasses because, the owner said, glass ones would be dangerous, which felt ironic. The pans weren’t suitable, and some had scratched Teflon bottoms, which are carcinogenic. There wasn’t proper cutlery either. Some windows and shades wouldn’t open, leaving certain rooms without natural light. There were fake plants, a tiny living room, and a first-aid kit that seemed to contain only scissors. The Wi-Fi was poor in the bedrooms. The oven, table, and pans weren’t the only issue. Communication with the owner was very bad. He brought some new pans and tried to fix the table, but was unfriendly and at one point blamed us for the apartment’s problems and threatened to charge us. When I raised the bathroom fungus, he said, “you’ve been there for 3 days and I don’t know what you did in the bathroom, but the problems weren’t there at check-in.” They were there when we checked in, though he wouldn’t have known, since we never saw or met him. It felt like the apartment was run by someone more interested in making money than giving guests a nice stay in Lisbon. There are plenty of good places to stay, but this wasn’t one of them. Please don’t choose it or pay so much for such a bad experience.

We spent a week in these apartments, and no one came to clean or replace our shower towels. There was no AC either. It was a nightmare for my whole family. This is a very bad place to stay on a trip. I’ll contact the company we booked through to complain and ask them to take it off their rental listings.

Communication was difficult and unfriendly. The place also didn’t match the pictures, since not every apartment has a terrace.