Casa da Morgadinha

The location worked reasonably well for us, about a half-hour drive from Lisbon. Bucelas has a small supermarket, bakery, bank and a few restaurants. We liked the food, though the menus were often limited. Chäo do Prado was especially good. You can take buses 344 or 331 to Lisbon and then transfer at Campo Grande to the metro, but we found the €4.45 bus fare plus €1.50 metro fare expensive. For seven people, Uber or Bolt was often cheaper and quicker. The myRL app shows bus times, and 344 makes fewer stops than 331. Some parts of the house were comfortable. The living room was clean and roomy, with a large TV that worked well, though there weren't enough seats for a big group. The bedrooms were spacious and the beds comfortable, but their condition varied: some were fine, while others were dirty, had mold on the walls or blood on the sheets. A few doors wouldn't shut because their locks were broken. The bathrooms were the worst part for us, and need cleaning and renovation. Some had mold; in one, the sink leaked underneath, ants were crawling around and the bath mat was dirty. The kitchen also needs work. Cutlery and pans were still dirty from previous guests, as far as we could tell. The counter was sticky, and the rusty oven had holes in its bottom and wasn't clean. Part of a cupboard fell out when we opened it, and we did our best to put it back. There were plenty of cooking utensils, but probably too few pots and pans for a large group. The fridge had eggs that had expired weeks earlier. The pool started collecting flies and branches, and there wasn't a net to fish them out. Some pool pebbles were missing. The grille covering the extractor hood was broken and dangerous, and one of us cut a foot on it. The lounge chairs were a plus. The two porch swings were green and dirty, so they weren't useful to us. We had no hot water for the first two days. Someone came to check on us twice and was friendly and helpful. There was just one key, which was okay until you consider that nobody can get out without it. If the person carrying it is away and there's an emergency, the others are stuck. The kitchen fire extinguisher had expired in 2018, which we don't think is acceptable for a house rented on Airbnb. The listing said there was a washing machine, but there wasn't one. When we asked, we were told the previous tenants had broken it, and we should have been told before arriving. We'd also asked about parasols and were assured there would be some, but there weren't. The photos made some things look different from reality, especially the bathrooms and half the lawn. Wi-Fi was good in the living room but barely worked in other areas. Messages through the Airbnb app were usually answered quickly and were reasonably accurate.