Hi there,
In the last post I told you that the idea was to go to Porto because it is where we wanted to buy the house, but when we booked the flight, all the accommodations with a “reasonable” price disappeared.
Initially we had ruled out going to Valencia because we had nothing to do there, we had already sold our apartments and we were not happy to even set foot in Spain.
If we didn’t go to Porto or find any decent place in Europe at a good price, plan b was to stay in Quito until September.
A friend of Diego’s who was in a WhatsApp group of hosts from Valencia gave us the contact information of a woman who could rent us her apartment.
She sent me a video and the accommodation looked very good and even more so if we compare it with the quality of places we had found so far. She explained to me that it was well equipped since it had the same things from when she lived there and that if I needed anything else, she had no problem finding it for me. In addition, there were two desks and she told me to buy the office chairs and that then we would arrange about the money.
The monthly price was 1000 euros, and we would pay for electricity separately.
After everything we had seen, it even seemed cheap.
Even so, I never cease to be amazed at the atrocity of prices for tourist accommodation. Think that the average salary in Spain does not even reach 1000 euros per month.
We then considered having the base in Valencia until September. Although neither of us like that city, at least we would be closer to Portugal than being in Ecuador or Turkey. In addition, we would have the help of Diego’s parents.
We agreed with the owner of the apartment to be there from May 25 to September 25 and the departure date would be flexible depending on how our plans went.
The apartment was on Fray Pedro Vives street and well located with respect to the center and public transport. Also, we had a Lidl next door.
We agreed on WhatsApp, but on the morning of May 25, the owner of the apartment asked the identity documents to make the contract and just when we were at the airport, she came up with the “security deposit.” She intended to charge us 1,000 euros and then lowered it to 500 euros that she would return to me by wire transfer “after we left when she received the electricity bill”. The hostess wanted a deposit as if it were a long-term rental instead of a tourist rental.
There we were in crisis again because I was not going to give her 500 euros and less when she was telling me hours before check-in. The logical thing is that she would have said it two months before when we had spoken for the first time. We had never given a security deposit in any tourist accommodation and in Spain the deposit is a problem because in most cases, tenants don’t return it because they just don’t feel like it; in fact, years ago when Diego lived rented, his tenant had not returned it.
You can’t imagine the minutes of real panic that we spent at the airport thinking that once again we were left without accommodation.
In the end, the hostess told me that we left it at 150 euros that would cover the maximum electricity that we could consume in the last month. That was more reasonable.
Diego’s parents picked us up at the airport and we were still afraid that in the end things would go wrong and we would have to go to their house, so we didn’t even take our luggage out of the car.
We went up to see the apartment and it was just as it looked in the video. It was new and fairly clean.
We read the contract and after making sure there was nothing wrong, we signed and paid the hostess in cash.
Also think about what a good deal for her to earn 4,000 euros without paying any taxes on that money.
Now let’s go to the positive and negative of the apartment:
Pros
- Although the area was nothing special, the location was good and we had a gym 25 minutes away on foot, the center 20 minutes away, the train station 30 minutes away. We could also walk to medical consultations.
- Excellent internet speed of 500mbps.
- There were 2 desks and having 3 rooms, each one could have their workspace.
- The apartment was recently renovated, and everything was new. The appliances were new, and we even had a dishwasher (something we hadn’t seen in our entire tour of Latin America.)
- Quality mattress and pillows. We had 7 months without sleeping with viscoelastic pillows.
- Large bathroom with ventilation and natural light.
- The apartment was well ventilated, if all the windows were opened, there was a lot of air flow and even in summer it was tolerable without putting on the air conditioning.
- Sufficient wardrobes in perfect condition.
- The apartment was on the top floor and not having neighbors above is a luxury.
- Air-conditioning.
- Although the views were not pretty, there was plenty of space without buildings.
- There were enough cleaning products that lasted the 4 months.
Cons
- Small kitchen and some basic things were missing that Diego’s mother had to lend us.
- A bit noisy. As it had a park in front, there were times of the day when you couldn’t even open the windows because the children’s screams were unbearable. Also, the bathroom overlooked an interior patio, so at certain times of the day you also heard music, whistling, people talking loudly, etc.
- Although it was the cleanest accommodation we had found so far, there were details that could be improved. I had to clean the cutlery again, all the drawers were dirty with dust and hair.
- The bathroom did not have a bidet.
In short, it was the best accommodation we had found in almost 8 months, and in fact, the only one with normal conditions; it was a relief to be in a place that did not give us problems. We were lucky to find a newly refurbished apartment where the owner only lived a couple of months a year, so there was no wear and tear.
Although it was expensive if we consider the salaries in Spain, the price was not bad if we take into account the season and the terrible qualities that are normally found in tourist accommodation.
We feel lucky to have been able to spend the summer in a normal accommodation.
A week after checking out, the hostess wrote us to return what was left of the security deposit after deducting the last electricity bill. They gave us almost 30 euros back and we couldn’t believe that such correct people still existed.
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