My friends and I planned a trip to Barcelona over our winter break, and we decided to use Homeaway for the first time (my first time, but not theirs). I was charged with handling the booking for the trip, and that part was a breeze. We found the apartment and the process of booking and arriving was painless.
Upon arriving though, the manager of the property gave us a tour of the space and attempted to demonstrate how to use the pull out couch--she was incapable of getting it open, which distressed her tremendously. She eventually left, and we were immediately able to pull out the couch with no problem at all. The next day however, we received a knock on the door from a man claiming to be the owner of the apartment. The manager had not told me anything about a visit from the owner, and therefore I did not feel comfortable opening the door. The owner would not leave however, and the manager was not responding to e-mail or her phone. She claimed to be on Whats App, but she was not and therefore was entirely unreachable. We managed to get the owner to leave upon telling him that there were no issues with the couch. Management should have informed me that the owner was coming, which she did not, and two days later when she finally did respond to my e-mail, she expected me to have somehow guessed that the owner would be coming since she was unable to open the couch. Overall just an unnecessary stress.
The day after that incident, we received yet another unwanted knock on the door, this time from a woman living upstairs. Again, I did not feel comfortable opening the door, which the tenant thought was weak and childlike and did not hesitate to inform me of her feelings. She claimed that the apartment heater was too loud and was disrupting her husband and herself. The heater was indeed extremely loud and very annoying, however, the apartment was a freezer box without it. The tenant informed me that she would be speaking to management about it, and then left. Very strange encounter, not pleasant at all.
The stickers on the kitchen wall are pealing off, the bathroom door knob fell off, the shower was very bizarre, would not heat up unless it was carefully jimmied, and would flood the bathroom floor. The space is advertised to hold 3 people, but that is a bit of a stretch.
Overall, the location is amazing. Really can't beat it. But the manager was very unresponsive and condescending over e-mail. I would not book this apartment again.