VILA MADALENA: PERFECT LOCATION, STYLISH APARTMENT

I stayed in the apartment for a week and while the apartment looks as advertised it doesn’t function well for extended stays longer than a night or so. For one, showers are limited and the hot water does not kick in for a long time, when it does it lasts for a short time and then goes back to freezing. Maybe user error I could admit but after a week and trying multiple different ways to get it to heat up, there was no luck. Another thing I wasn’t aware of was that there was no AIr conditioning. All that’s in the apartment is a fan that doesn’t do much for ventilation or cooling the place down as the apartment used to be a studio and the walls are very thick and breeze doesn’t come in as the outside is blocked in as well. If you want to watch tv you’re limited to antena and if you want to watch Netflix you’ll need to bring your own fire stick or laptop. Not a big deal for me but worth mentioning for some. Back to function, if you want to lay in bed (which was on the floor by the way) and charge your phone, you can’t as there’s no outlet. Nights I would fall asleep and have to get up and plug it in which also not a big deal but worth mentioning for some. If you want to do laundry there is a fee as well and you have to register for a time on another website. Also lastly if you arrive in the mornings the host won’t check you in early without charging you. Something I’ve never experienced. The only time he allows is 16:00 to do a SELF CHECKIN. Ridiculous. No one should have to pay to check themselves in on there own. I also believe the apartment may be monitored as I left a day earlier and the host contacted me to let me know they checked me out. How they knew I left a day early I couldn’t tell you. Overall, compared to my last visit to São Paulo there are better options available.