La Latina Deluxe Apartment

Beautiful apartment, great location, complicated check in and huge deposit

8.0

Very comfortable, every room has its own shower and toilet. Some are smaller, but all are clean and it is nice to have your own bathroom. For us the location was located perfectly. Everything was clean. Apartment looked like the pictures.

− We only received the exact address 30 minutes for check in. Due to another review I was not sure if we would get the location we booked, but we did. Because we were all travelling from different areas, not receiving the address was complicated. The deposit was huge compared to the amount we paid for the stay. After a small discussion after we left, we did got back our full deposit. There were not enough chairs for the amount of people. I told them, we were supposed to receive an extra one, but never did. Note that everyone needs to be over 35 years old and you need to provide a clear copy of ALL your passports. Even the one I provided with the official Dutch government app was not okay. Not allowed to block any numbers. Due to the amount of fraud with passports, I don’t like this.

Mixed emotions

7.0

I recently booked the Premium La Latina apartment rental in Madrid through Booking.com for a group of 12 people during a city break. While the platform made it possible to arrange our stay, several issues arose that left me with mixed feelings about the experience. Below, I’ll outline these concerns in a polite manner, as they significantly affected our trip on its beginning. Unexpected Relocation One of the most frustrating aspects was an unexpected relocation to another apartment, which was only communicated to us when check-in time began. This last-minute change was inconvenient, especially since the new apartment was situated outside the city center. For a city break trip, this shift disrupted a little bit our plans and added stress to what should have been a smooth start to our stay. High Deposit The rental required a deposit of 2,000 EUR paid in front, an amount that exceeded the cost of the rent itself. To Booking.com’s credit, this was clearly stated in the rental rules on their site. However, such a high deposit—larger than the accommodation cost—feels excessive and could discourage other travelers, even if it’s transparently communicated. Enormous Late Check-In Fee Another issue was the late check-in fee of nearly 400 EUR for arrivals between 8 pm and midnight. What makes this particularly striking is that the standard check-in process appeared to be fully remote: keys were collected from a locker box at the apartment’s front door, and all support was provided via phone, with no staff present. For a service that appears to require no additional effort from the host, this fee seems unreasonable. In fact, it was cheaper for me - as the owner of reservation - to rearrange my travel plans and book an earlier flight to avoid this cost, which highlights how ridiculous the fee feels in practice.

− see above