First let me say we checked into the "Terrace" apartment in San Telmo Lofts after 6 months of traveling through Asia, Europe and South America. For most of our traveling we stayed in guests houses and rental apartments on a strict budget. So I think we have a lot of experience in these types of accommodations over the past half year of traveling, and I can say this was by far THE WORST place we booked!
San Telmo Lofts is advertised as "bohemian" and "quirky" when the real description should be OLD and RUN DOWN. All their rooms look ver nice on their website but these are VERY deceptive photos.
The "Terrace" Apartment is on a very busy street in a very old and rundown building, the halls are very poorly lit and there is garbage piled up in the halls. When the apartment manager let us into the apartment the true rundown nature of this apartment started to show. First in order to get to this apartment you have to walk over a shaky metal grate that is suspended 5 stories up. Then she showed us the "trick" to unlock the apartment door because "it's not easy to open". Then we noticed a awful rotting smell , when I asked about it the manager said "she thinks it's the apartment next door, but you can't smell it inside". When we got in she then explained "that the air conditioner leaks so we shouldn't move the plant under it because it was catching the water and oh sorry about the loud noise coming from the fridge it's very old."
We were showed around the rest of the apartment then the manager left us. After a long day of traveling I wanted to take a shower, when I pulled back the shower curtain there was long black hairs still in the tub from the previous guest, it was clearly not cleaned! Plus there was black mold and mildew in the shower.
After being in the apartment for only about 30 min we could smell that rotten smell from the hall that can only be described as a dead animal. Then the neighbors started to slam there doors over and over...
I then called the property manager and informed her that the bathtub had not been cleaned and she said "well the maid had to clean 3 other apartments today and yours was last so she may have rushed a bit. " I told her between the unclean bathroom and awful smell we wanted to check out immediately!
We quickly did a search for nearby hotels since the hour was late. Luckily we found one a few blocks away(Be Hotel). Amazingly it was almost half the price with 2 pools, gym and hot tub. We liked it so much we ended up staying 2 nights there then moved over to another rental apartment in Palermo (Ba 4U apartments) which was in a brand new high rise with 24hr security, gym, pool and all new appliances again it was half the price as San Telmo Lofts.
I find it odd that the all the "good reviews" for San Telmo Lofts are ALL on their own site.
After 3 days of trying to reach the owner for a refund we were told they would not refund any of our money even though we were only in there awful apartment for no more then an hour. so be WARNED they take your money upfront and WILL NOT refund!!!! read more