Name: Family Apartment Gobernador
Address: Calle Gobernador 11, 28014 Madrid Spain, Madrid, Madrid, Madrid, 28014, Spain
Rating: 6

Location

Antón Martín

Atocha

Lavapiés

Cortes

Imprenta Juan de la Cuesta

Parroquia Jesus de Medinaceli

Plaza Plateria de Martinez

CaixaForum Madrid

Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians

House-Museum of Lope de Vega

Royal Botanic Garden

Sala Triangulo

Prado Museum

Arte 10 Galeria

Calle de Cervantes 2

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía

Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

Buen Retiro Park

Reina Sofia Museum

Puerta del Sol

Plaza Mayor

Gran Vía

Royal Palace

Spain Square

Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas Airport

Madrid–Torrejón Airport

Family Apartment Gobernador

Madrid

The owners cancelled last minute we paid in Feb 2022 and we still haven’t had our money back. They are a fraud avoid booking with them at all costs nearly £500 out of pocket and Booking.com have done nothing about it either.

Fraud avoid booking this property

First of all, the owners don't answer the calls, at almost no time... what service is this? At the entrance, we notice that the condition of the furniture and furnishings is painful, let's not let the photos on the web coincide at all with the reality... Photoshop? When we start with discouragement to place the clothes, we find hair and dust... under the beds, closets,... what cleans this? Afterwards, there are 2 uninhabited light bulbs, the refrigerator doesn't work well, just a roll of toilet paper, mattresses, etc. We understand how to sell an apartment that isn't in perfect condition.

Absolutely lamentable.

I don't know where to start! Apart from the geographical location of the nice apartment, everything else is a disaster! We had reserved this apartment for a girl's life burial. When we got to the place, no one. No sign of the owner! After a good thousand calls we decided to call the booking site and we were already looking for a plan B! And there was a miracle! Somebody walked up and took 3 minutes to tell us the way to go. When we got there we looked like the housewife! And when we got inside it was drama!

Get out of here.

We loved staying here.  We have 3 children (11, 12 and 14) and the apartment met our needs very well.  We had plenty of room, a nice kitchen, room to relax and spread out.  Internet access (key with kids this age!) was easy, and there were good instructions available to help with the details of the apartment.  It's a GREAT location -- easy to get to the Metro, major sights right nearby, excellent tapas bars all around.  It was fun to sink into city life and fully experience the culture of Madrid.

What a way to see Madrid!

We were 2 couples and we saw this apt on VRBO.  The location is great as it is very close to the 3 big art museums and only a short walk to Plaza Mayor, Santa Ana and Puerto de Sol. 
On this trip to Spain we found 4 of our apt stays through VRBO.  I agree with gracie-boo that I have never stayed in a VRBO that was so empty.   It is also in need of a little TLC.  The kitchen cabinets are coming apart, the furniture and scatter rugs could use a good cleaning and the whole place needs a paint job. 
The apt is large however it is likely better suited to adults and children than two couples as the second and third bedrooms are so tiny you need both of them to accommodate both people and luggage.

Great location but needs a little TLC

I stayed at the Gobernador with my mom and sister on a family trip in January 2010.    We choose the Gobernador from their VRBO ad.  Since we were arriving early in Madrid, we arrange to pay the 35€ fee early check-in fee.  Carlos was out-of-town, so my correspondance directly before arrival was with Jennifer, his wife.  Since she knew we were arriving early and she would not be available at that time, she gave me the name and phone number of the person (K), I was supposed to call upon arrival in Madrid.  Jennifer told me she would be available later that day, at 5:30 p.m. to go over any details after we arrived, and answer any questions we might have.  Alas, neither K nor Jennifer were answering their phones when our plane landed.

I called K and Jennifer several times during the taxi ride from the airport to the apartment, and left voice mails.  Neither one ever called me back.  When we got to the apartment,  I kept trying K and Jennifer, and also called the other contact number I had.  No answer.  We stood out in the freezing street for almost an hour.  I annoyed everyone in the building by ringing all the bells, trying to find someone to let us in.  I finally got in touch with K, and told her, in my poor Spanish, that we were waiting out front.

I am not sure what she said, but K never showed up, nor did Jennifer.  I did go through my paperwork and found a phone number for A, another person who did check-ins, and she did finally show up.  She spoke absolutely no English, but let us in, and we went over the rental agreement with her and paid the balance due.  It was hilarious, because my mom, who hasn't had a Spanish class in probably 40 years, was going over the apartment information with A.  I guess they were just sympatico, or maybe they spoke each other's unspoken language!  I managed to count out the money due in Spanish,  and all was well.  I will say A was charming and helpful, and did her best, but I was not impressed that the entire time we were in Madrid, Jennifer, the owner, never returned one of my many calls, to make sure all had gone well.

I have rented lots of apartments in many different countries from VRBO, and this is the first one that was so empty; not even salt and pepper.  My mom kept telling me before the trip, "I'm going to bring salt and pepper, sugar, etc.", and I kept telling her not to bother, that of course they would have the basics, but they didn't.  There were a few roles of toilet paper and some dish soap, but not even dishwasher detergent.  By the way, although the instructions do not state this, the clothes washer is also a dryer, so be sure to pull your wet clothes out if you don't want them to run for hours drying.  You will need laundry detergent if you plan to wash clothes, though clothes pins are provided.

The kitchen does not have an American style coffee maker;  make sure you know how to use a Moka pot before you go.  The freezer works great, the refrigerator does not keep things cold, and probably needs someone to check on it, to see what the problem is.  

The positives:  it was nice to have two bathrooms and three bedrooms.  The living room was large and had comfortable seating, books, and two nice windows each with a tiny balcony, though there are absolutely no English language stations to be found on the TV; not even the BBC, which is a new one for me.  This wasn't a major issue for us, but if you were traveling with children, it could be.  Some of the lamps did not work; it was quite strange, but they had American style plugs and there were no adapters, so the plugs were just laying on the floor, and the lamps could not be used.  This made the living room kind of dark in the morning and evening.

The water pressure is fine and there is plenty of hot water.  Everything was clean and worked, though some of the window blinds don't seem to function correctly in the bedrooms, but this is a minor issue.  Also, it seems almost impossible to adjust the heat so it's not like an oven, but it may be we just didn't understand how to correctly do this.

The location is great; couldn't ask for better; close to the metro, a wonderful marketplace, where the people could not be friendlier or nicer, and it's pretty quiet.  I would caution that you need to be careful to never place your trash in one of the trash cans outside, as whoever owns them will immediately come down and put your trashout on the street!  The building is noisy, not from the street, but the people who live upstairs must work strange hours, because you could hear them each night in the wee hours of the morning.  Bring ear plugs if you think this will bother you.

The free Wi-Fi worked great, once we figured it out, and was definately a plus.  

Overall, the apartment is recommended, especially for families.  My biggest complaints would be the apparent misunderstanding about check in, and the noise in the middle of the night, from the tenants upstairs.  Since we all travel a lot, we were able to handle the problems, such as the fact there was  no one there when we wanted to check-in, but I think an unsophisticated traveler would have just left, caught a taxi and gone to a hotel.

Would I stay at this apartment again?  Probably, but now I've gotten the kinks worked out!  I think most problems were due to misunderstandings, but honestly, that's not the way to run a successful business.

 Madrid is a wonderful city; advise you brush up on your Spanish before you visit, although people went out of their way to even leave their stores to walk us where we wanted to go.  A great place to visit!

An honest review

We enjoyed our stay. The apt. was comfortable for a family and clean. The location was great. Carlos was very helpful and his english was excellant. I found the information in Rick Steeves Europe book.  Cris Bushman

The apt. was perfect for a family.

Stayed for 3 nights with 2 singles and 2 couples. Perfectly set-up bedrooms for this size of group and could have slept 2 more on livingroom sofas.  Close to great restaurants, walking, Prado, train station and metro. Love having kitchen to prepare breakfasts. Wi-fi and clothes washer were added welcome features. Would highly recommend this method of travel over hotels. Have tried VRBO 3 times and each location was excellent (Madrid, Cortona Italy and Santa Ynez Valley in California).

The only very minor negative was that the damage deposit was charged to my Mastercard and later refunded. The exchange from CAD to Euro and back again cost me when there was no damage. Would recommend that the damage deposit not be processed unless there has been damage. Also had to request the refund from the owners. A minor administrative issue.

Family Apartment Gobernador

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