Our experience was quite different from many of the ones I read here. We thoroughly enjoyed our experience in the 2 apartments we rented from Friendly Rentals. We found them very easy to deal with throughout and they were quite responsive when we had issues. We didn't have any after-hours issues or any on the weekend, so I can't speak to that. Both apartments we stayed in were outstanding. In Madrid, we stayed in the Chamberi Place apt and it was clean, spacious for an apartment, great light, 3 sets of French doors, comfortable beds, spacious kitchen. It's in Chamberi which is a pretty non-touristy section but is easily walkable to great neighborhoods like Malasena, a very enjoyable but longer (20-45 minutes) walk to Chueca, Plaza del Sol, Las Letras or the area near the Prado and and Retiro park. A Metro stop (Moncloa) was very close and made many cool parts of town easy to get to. In Barcelona, we stayed at Music IV apartment which was in the Old City in the La Ribara part which is a bit less touristy than El Born or El Gotic. We loved this place! Right on a narrow street, with 2 small balconies. There was a good amount of street noise in the front rooms but in a city kind of way, not at all bothersome to us. The bedrooms were very quiet because their windows do not face the street. Literally 2 blocks from the Palau de la Musica Cataluna. Many small 'maker' shops around, a few blocks from the excellent Santa Caterina Market (which has an excellent tapas bar in it), walkable to the Picasso Museum. A little longer walk (30-40 minutes) to Gaudi's La Perdera and Casa Batlio (Batlio's facade is being renovated right now, though). It's right near 2 excellent tapas places - Casa Lolea is great (need a reservation for dinner - even late) and Bar San Pere is across the street - a small place that had really original tapas dishes and very friendly waitstaff. A lot of the other tapas places we saw in Barcelona seemed kind of gritty or just geared towards tourists. Anyway, not sure we could recommend these apartments enough. read more

I agree with a previous reviewer about the covid issue and refusal to refund a deposit. My flight from the US has been cancelled and travel is limited to essential only. Also, Spain has their own restrictions. So even though I'm legally prohibited from making my trip, they refuse to refund the deposit. Yes, the are allowing me to use the funds for up to a year but I don't know that I'll be able to go within a year. I had no problem whatsoever getting AirBnB to give me a full refund for the rest of my trip to Spain. read more

I am really surprised to see all these negative reviews of this company. I booked an apartment they were managing through Airbnb ( I was not aware that you could book directly on their website). The apartment had great reviews on Airbnb so we went a head and were not let down. The apartment was super central, clean and well equipped. The staff was friendly and welcoming too, and answered all my questions promptly. Only downfall for us was that that we could not check-in before 15 hours, and our flight arrived quiet early, which was not a major drama as we could store our luggage at their office and went to explore the city. Overall we were satisfied with the experience and will for sure book with them directly next time. read more

DO NOT USE FRIENDLY RENTALS... My son and three of his friends rented Latina XII in Madrid for spring semester 2019. The pictures shown on their website for the apartment were totally deceiving and it was in much worse condition than what was shown. The worst part was that they were not fair in assessing the apartment after move out and took a ridiculous amount out of our security deposit!! I would not recommend them or use this rental company ever again!!! read more

DO NOT STAY HERE!!!! We were robbed in an apartment rented to us by Friendly Rentals - no forced entry and it happened within hours of checking in so use your imagination! Despite knowing that my family was sleeping with furniture barricaded up against the door for the night they never came to help us - we had to come to them the next day and they could not care less. We imagine that this is because this is their gimmick. The police in Barcelona knew the name Friendly Rentals instantly when we said it and told us that this has happened with them before. DO NOT STAY HERE!!!! read more

COVID- 19 GREED. This place is awful. We are in the midst of coronavirus and they will not refund our deposit. Our travel to Spain was June 30-July 30 with our last week staying in a friendly rental property. My two stepdaughters have Diabetes Type 1 and my mother and her husband are elderly. There is no way we will be risking their lives to travel to Spain this summer but (not so) friendly rentals will not refund us. I emailed a second time after much news in the world has changed and Spain has announced a two-phase reopening of the economy and the staff member was rude saying "as previously stated.." So basically they are greedy and bad news. My husband is from Spain and we travel annually with a beach home south of Barcelona, however, we always spend at least a week in Barcelona, never again with these people! read more

Awful service. No wifi. Office is 20 min walk from the unit. Dirty apartment. Cheap beds. Do not recommend. Booked via Airbnb but they do not provide Airbnb quality service. read more

I would NOT recommend this place! We checked in, left our place an hour later, came back a few hours later and our computer, iPad, camera, credit cards, and some jewelry were stolen. There was no forced entry and the door was locked so it was clearly someone associated with FR that had a key and knew we just checked in. We called FR that night and they did nothing for us. When we went to the office the next day, they "had no idea" and did not offer to help except to say we could go stay somewhere else and they would refund us, but nothing about our lost items. Luckily, Air bnb was able to find another place for us to stay. We filed a police report and were told this not the first time they heard their name associated with theft. This company posts properties on air bnb under fake names like "Claudia" so that it appears you are renting from a person. They are is shady, and definitely not trustworthy. Spread the word! read more

The flat we rented flooded when it rained. My laptop got wet and broken. They refused to refund. The flat was noisy. They promised to come and inspect the flat and locate the noisy neighbour. They did not turn up. Customer service was belligerent. TV only had four channels in Spanish. The shower flooded whenever it was used. Do not use. They are complete cowboys and do not care about good customer service. I regret ever having used their services They do not have a general page so have left my review here. Avoid having anything to do with them. We rented a flat in carrer de commerc. Do yourself a favour, take note of the awful reviews. They are there for a reason read more

Beware of Cash Only Policies & Credit Card Fees Who wants to carry $1000's in cash on their vacation? That is what Friendly Rentals expect you to do. I tried to book a stay with this company but missed in their terms & service page that they require cash on arrival. This important bit of information is not disclosed during the checkout process. No, in fact, they clearly show logos of credit cards. Only when I received my confirmation email did I realize this was their policy. I tried to cancel my bookings (one through Homeaway and another direct) and they initially refused. Eventually, they did refund the Homeaway booking but refused with the one I booked directly. My stay was 60 days out and my request within 24 hours of confirmation. They said they would take a credit card on arrival for the second booking, perhaps with a 3-5% surcharge. However, after having very poor support from them and feeling duped by their odd payment arrangements, I did not want to deal with this company. Be sure to check reviews on independent sites about this company. You cannot trust reviews on booking web sites as they will refuse to accept a review if you did not actually stay there. After my experience, I dug around some more and the unfriendly nature of Friendly Rentals emerged. Do your own homework. They can keep my deposit -- not going to have my 10 day trip to Spain ruined by Friendly Rentals. read more

If I could give zero stars I would, my daughter and 4 friends rented an apartment, there was no concierge, and the safe also did not work in the room, girls went out came back it wasn't until the next morning all their money was missing, clearly no signs of break in! They spent the last day in the police station, they weren't even prepared to check cctv it help 5 young girls, but had the nerve to charge them 20 euros to let them back in the room as something was forgotten, what place tells you to leave the keys in the room when you leave, they must also have a spare set for when you're out too! read more

I would not recommend this company at all. The office to check in is at a different location than the actual apartment. So you'll have to spend more on taxis, and reload all your luggages. Any money you saved by going with this place was lost. We came in early to fill out the paperwork and we were told the unit would be available at 3. We got to the office at 3:15, and the keys were not there. They said it would take another 10 to 15 minutes. We also has problems getting through the main door. We were only able to get in eventually because someone was leaving. Horrible experience. I would not recommend this place at all! read more

This was awful: I don't recommend this company at all! -There were cockroaches everyday in the entrance -Things were not working, or very used: the TV was not working; the coffee machine was not working; the blinders were stuck so nights were VERY short. -Mattresses are awful: backaches everyday -LOT of humidity in one of the bathroom: IT STINKS. I told them, they did not care. -The apt was not like the picture: painting are old, chairs are used, and there were bugs in the apt (cockroaches are pretty disgusting) -On top of that, friendly rental does not provide you with ANY SERVICE. One of the coffee maker was leaking (with boiled water) so I used a second one, and it just exploded on me, burnt me very badly and I ended up at the Emergency Room. This shows you how things are badly maintained. I called friendly rental: they did not care, they did not replace the coffee maker (we did not have any during our entire stay of 1 week) and they did not any thing to make it up. They did not fix anything (see the above list with all the problems), they did not do any discount. They could not care less. And THEY LIE: they say they would fix things or get back to me, and THEY NEVER DID. They take benefit from you being a stranger and being here a short period of time. I don't trust this company. The first thing they do is ASK YOU TO PAY CASH, AND take a deposit from your credit card AND COPY ALL THE NUMBERS OF YOUR CREDIT CARD. After I gave them more than 1000 euros, I did not exist any more and they didn't provide me with ANYTHING. It is better to book a hotel or to rent from Air BNB. Trust me, don't spend your money with them!!! read more

Friendlyrentals.com is attracting travelleres with superior appartments displayed in their websited and finally renting out a place of minor value. They manage a whole floor of appartments in Goodoy Cruz & Paraguay in Palero, Buenos Aires. On their website, they advertise the Ringo III Appartment, representing the biggest and nicest one in the building. I especially confirmed facilities like a large balcony across the entire appartment with the local team prior to booking. However, one signed the contract, we were shown an appartment of minor value: smaller in size with a tiny balcony only accessible from one room. The representative admitted that the nice appartment on the internet is not available although this was confirmed prior to booking - they work like this. We did not accept this practice and are now fighting for the deposit paid for this imposture. Furthermore, it is to mention that friendlyrentals.com generally work with cash payments. On their website, it said that under certain circumstances, credit card payment are accepted at a charge of 3% - however they asked 15% from us! read more

I consider myself a seasoned traveler, as I travel over 100,000 miles a year and stay in hotels all over the world. I decided on this trip to try renting a condo from "Friendly Rentals" for my partner and my family on our recent trip to Barcelona. Truth be told, it was an extremely embarrassing situation. The company represented to me a 4 bedroom apartment with a number of amenities that just did not exist. One of the bedrooms was really a loft, where the ceiling was less than 6 feet clearance so you could not stand up, (that is if you can actually negotiate the stairs). The stairs were so steep and dangerous that we could not use the space. The worst part of the whole thing was when I called to ask how we could fix this, the office manager would not speak to me and the girl on the phone desk was arrogant and unhelpful. They made no attempt to fix the situation, or to even apologize. I would recommend "Vacation Rentals By Owner" VRBO if you want a more truthful experience. read more

We found ourselves deeply disappointed AND ITCHING by our choice to go with friendly Rentals. It went from bad to worst. We decided to rent a flat vs hotel for more space and a kitchen and a more local experience. When we arrived at the rental office, it was a huge room with 50+ workers on computers and 3 people working the desk, so a lot of overhead for their business. And as we suspected, their profit does not go into maintaining a good product or customer service. Our place was not as advertised. It was smaller, darker and the floor was crumbling apart. It smelled musty and we immediately began to sneeze. (Be careful their clauses say that there are variations in the properties and you may not get the one you picked!) my husband decided to forty to exchange the place, knowing we would likely lose our deposit. The office was uncooperative and told us we would lose our entire payment if we switched! We decided to stay and make the best of it. Bad choice. By the second night I had bites on my neck in clusters and rows of 3-- the telltale sign of bedbugs. Over the coming days more bites showed up. We washed everything and moved to Le meridian. Everything stopped and we were able to heal. We are back in the U.S. But all our luggage is sealed up in the garage! Don't trust Friendly Rentals. They could care less about customers, or their own properties! read more

Friendly Rentals - Bites after 2 nights in friendly rental condo. Barcelona, Spain - Vacation Rentals Near Me - Barcelona, B

Be careful with these guys. Nothing is as it seems. Every little thing is a discussion or argument- not enough towels, soap, pillows, no supplies at all in the apartments. Check in is a major process. Everyone at customer service has no ability or desire to help. They promise to call back and then just ignore the issues. read more

Barcelona is one of my favourite cities, a vibrant sub-culture that is never the same each time, and this is probably my fifth visit. Unfortunately its popularity, and the strength of the EUR against the £, has made it more and more expensive. Last time I stayed was in a very mediocre hotel for over EUR100 per night, so this time I thought we'd rent a flat for a few days from one of the many agencies on the web. We selected Friendly Rentals as the choice was huge and the prices quite reasonable, and it was generally very successful with some reservations. Self-catering apartments in Spain all seem to have the same problem: absolutely minimal supplies when you arrive. The attitude appears to be, if you need it, buy it. This includes washing-up liquid, dish-cloths, loo rolls, salt, pepper, oil, etc. Obviously a supermarket will only sell in quantities far too great for a 4 or 7 day stay, not to mention the 100ml restrictions on liquids in hand-luggage, so most of the provisions are left behind in the flat at the end of the stay. These are obviously perks for the cleaners or agents themselves and removed during cleaning, and the cycle repeats itself for the next tenant. Perhaps the idea is that you will be persuaded to eat out more and assist the local restaurant trade. Having said that, the Jazz apartment provided by Art Apartments through Friendly Rentals was small but clean and well equipped enough, although the location of Barceloneta is very artisan. Expect large old buildings, narrow streets, washing on the balconies across the street so close you can practically touch, and a lot of noise and hubbub from dogs barking, people talking, scooters flying about, and the odd crash from the rubbish bins (or vehicles hitting each other). As this can get a bit tedious at night, make sure you have double glazed windows and air-conditioning in the warmer months; this however won't stop the creaking from the ageing buildings themselves, footfalls and noise from the other tenants, and if you have a flat several floors up, you need to be fit to climb the stairs there are no lifts in this part of town. As compared to an hotel, the price of EUR530 for 5 nights was quite reasonable given the facilities, Satellite TV, DVD/CD player, a/c, heater, cooker hob (but no oven), microwave, etc. and a refurbished style from the best that Ikea can offer. The young lad from Belarus that arrived on the first day to show us round was very personable and helpful with his rather limited English, but never materialised at the end of the stay to check out the flat. As several things were missing from the inventory at the start we thought we might need to explain, but our deposit was returned in full under the door (in cash) on the last night, so we assumed their organisational abilities had room for improvement perhaps. Things to note: make sure you bring adaptors for UK electrical equipment, chargers, etc., these were not provided (our flat had very few power points, and we ended up using the toaster on the dining table to allow the kettle to boil!). read more

You know that saying, "too good to be true"? That was my experience with Friendly Rentals. The description and the pictures were fantastic, but... well, the reality was different: what you see is not quite what you get. Even worse, they manipulate the reviews: they ask you for both positive and negative features of the apartment, and then they only post the positive part. So if you look at the reviews, it seems that they are positives, even when they were not. Clever or unethical, you decide - but for sure misleading. I said in the review I would never recommend that apartment to anyone - they didn't post that part, or any other issues I wrote about... only the positives (which I thought it was fair to mention). And if you don't say anything good, they will just not post your review. Everyone presents some better sides of themselves, of a product, or a service, in order to sell. But the disappointment or discomfort that comes with an apartment that does not suit your needs or preferences for sure will kill your vacation... and there is nothing you can do, you're stuck. They made the sale, you wasted your vacation... I would definitely not go with them again. Never. read more

friendly rentals ne met pas les commentaires négatifs, l'appartement en photo paraissait 2 fois plus grand qu'en réalité et il n'était pas nickel au niveau propreté. Il manquait d'accessoires pour cuisiner et pour manger, le frigo était éteint à notre arrivée alors qu'il faisait au moins 30 degrés dans l'appartement, il n'y avait aucun rideaux alors que l'appartement était plein sud et en prime une aire de jeux pour enfant en face, cris et hurlements d'enfants jusqu'à 22h30, tout ça je l'ai dit à friendly qui n'a jamais publié mon commentaire et l'appartement est toujours dans les premiers à Berlin, méfiez vous. read more