Has anybody rented a short term apartment from Friendly Rentals in Madrid, or can anybody recommend specific apartments of theirs?

From their website, they seem to have some nice places.

I'm not sure yet that I want to go the apartment route on my upcoming week long stay. I recently rented an apartment for two weeks in Paris, and it had it's share of aggravation.

For only a week, a hotel might be a better idea, but I'm still deciding.

I´ve rented apartments in London , New York , Cape Town etc... and find them so much better than hotel rooms ! But I´ve not heard of anybody renting apartments here in Madrid . I´d also be interested in board members recommendations for apartments since I´m asked the question by friends abroad , regularly .
Steve

I have not used Friendly Rentals before, no, but I can tell you they've been on the internet for 4 or 5 years.

dmc123, have you conducted a SEARCH for previously posted comments?

I don't recall seeing anything but you may get lucky.

Saludos, MadridMan

I stayed in an apartment a couple of weeks ago and was very happy with it . I've forgotten the details but I will post them here on friday or saturday dpending when I get home from Norway

I've rented apartments in Buenos Aires for months at a time, but it's a huge saving of money there as opposed to a hotel.

I don't see that it's much of a saving in Europe. Prices seem similar from what I can determine.

Yeah , but that´s the point ... Ok you could rent a beautiful hotel room , or you could have the freedom of an apartment for more or less the same price ... I do´n´t mind hostales and hotels , and stay in them all the time , but , for example , when I go back to my City of London , I try to get a short let apartment . Steve

dmc123,

During my last vacation to Madrid, I stayed at an apartment run by Hostal Madrid, www.hostal-madrid.info. It was very centrally located. I wrote a review years ago.

I believe it cost almost twice what a room at the hostal would have, but for all the reasons Steve points out, I really enjoyed it. Plus it had facilities for laundry which is always a problem when traveling in Europe.

Gazpacho

Check out Bookassist.com -- which will take you to softguide.com page...there check out Princessa Apartmento 14 at Plaza Espana...I stayed there in March and plan to return this falle. The apartment is centrally located and was one of the better buys I found on the internet at that time.

HJT

I stayed with waytostay at the thysen luxe apartment . We were happy with it there was a few wee problems but the apartment owner Carlos sorted them out in no time . Id have no problems using them again

I agree with most of the users- I think it's a better idea to rent out apartments or houses rather than stay in hotels. Even if you're just staying for a week, sometimes it can be cheaper. Plus you save money because you can usually cook, and you don't have to eat out all the time. I don't have any particular apartment recommendations for madrid rentals and I haven't heard much about Friendly Rentals, but I can suggest some sites I have looked into before:

http://www.madrid.com/madrid_apartments

This site has a wide variety of 'apartment houses' and other types of accommodation. The prices are pretty varied:

http://www.casamundo.co.uk/spain/madrid/madrid.htm

This site especially seems to have low prices (like for their studios):

http://www.only-apartments.com/apartments-madrid.html

If anyone has used these sites before it would would be nice to get some reviews!

DID Donna rent an apartment in Madrid in July? This thread is three months old, until today.

FWIW, Friendly Rentals got terrible reviews on TA, which is why I chose a different agency.

No. I decided not to. I didn't see any saving of money by renting an apartment, and I'm only staying in Madrid a week this time.

Instead I'll be staying at the Tryp Ambassador for 40 Euros a night. While this one wasn't on the list of Madrid hotels I'm dying to stay at, it seemed like a good deal to take advantage of with the exchange rate being what it is. Really good rate for a 4 star. How bad could it be! At least I'll have some money left over to eat.

I had been considering the Chueca IV apartment on Friendly Rentals, and I may rent that one someday when I have more time. For me, renting an apartment for less than a month doesn't make much sense with all that's involved.

I think most of the problems come from the owners rather than the rental agencies. Many owners are not always forthcoming with potential problems, and the agencies get caught in the middle when these things hit the fan.

By the way, striped shirt, I really enjoyed your rant on Tripadvisor about the Seville apartment. It was very entertaining.

Donna, Hi

Glad you found the TA stuff about the Seville apartment entertaining. There's some photos in the thread below this one. I had to put them up twice, I have no idea why.

TA refuse to publish these photos on bureaucratic grounds, so Saludos MadridMan for allowing them.

Don't get me started with Tripadvisor. A few years ago they removed a review of mine too. I was sent for training at a hotel in upstate New York by a travel agency I was working for at the time. Some of the rooms had bedbugs, and a coworker of mine had to be taken to the emergency room because she was bitten so badly. We had to go to another hotel who refused to let us in until all our luggage and clothing had been fumigated.

Tripadvisor sent me a statement to sign swearing that this was true, and I signed it because it was true. Even so, they removed my review.

I would hate to see other people go to that hotel and go through what we did.

Donna, Hi

Other people are going to that apartment and going through what I did. TA won't put the pictures up, so I've gone back to the Seville forum and posted a link to the relevant thread here. I doubt that MadridMan has a problem with this.

I'm actually going to Seville tomorrow, and I'll be dealing with your friends at Sevilla5. I'm staying for a week at their Arfe apartments. It's a cheap apartment, so I'm not expecting anything lavish. I'll let you know how it goes.