Charming Ribera del Manzanares Madrid

Simply put, the host is a cheater. First of all, upon reservation on Booking.com I selected the crib option, which was listed for free. The night before the check-in, the host writes me that the crib costed 30€. We arrived to the apartment in the evening, and we found cockroaches in the kitchen. I immediately texted the host, and they weren't believing me and fooling me around. I had to send a video as evidence. Upon that, they sent someone over the next morning to do some type of pest control. The effects lasted 1 day, and we stayed there for 4 nights. They failed to resend someone to redo the pest control, and I contacted Booking.com for support. The host said they'd apply a discount for the inconvenience, which was meant to be a refund as I had already paid the full stay.....and here the "funniest" part starts: in a nutshell, after 1.5 months I haven't received anything at all. The most frustrating part is that I'm getting fooled both by the host and by Booking.com. The former is simply not answering anymore to me, and failing to the actions to process the refund through Booking.com. The latter, promised that if the host was failing on the refund, they'd step over and cover. A lie, as then they said it wasn't the case and the blame is only on the host. It's really concerning the low level of customer support that Booking.com provides: there's no incident number, the messaging system is not monitored and they answer whe they feel like, so you can contact only by phone and you need to wait for long time to then re explained everything over and over...and each time getting a different version from the support agent. Totally disappointing and concerning!

We expected noise from the cafes outside based on other reviews, and there was noise until ~midnight. It was ok in the bedroom, which is at the back of the apartment, but the sofa bed is right in the front of the apartment, so it was tough for the kids. Not enough of an issue to not recommend the apartment, but for people who need silence to sleep or have young kids who would be sleeping on the sofa bed, this is important to know.

The check in process was a bit difficult. We were not provided with a code to open the door even up to the day we arrived in Madrid. I messaged the host through Booking.com and didn’t get a response so when we arrived at the property, I had to give the host a call and then was sent a form to complete before we got the code. They also expect a large deposit (€300) to be prepared when checking in, this enters your bank account as a pending charge so need to ensure you have enough money in your account. The property is a little bit far to walk to attractions, however the area is very nice and peaceful with good restaurants nearby.