Old City Design Apartments

Excellent location, up a steep but short little hill which put you very close to the "top" bridge, and a very short walk to Sao Bento station. Apartments was small and quirky but functional and a fair price with generally great internet connectivity and decent kitchen and bathroom. Great comms and appreciated the late checkout on New Years Day, thank you, so good to deal with real people. Recommended.

The view from this apartment is magnificent. I wish I could end the review here and give the place a 10/10. Unfortunately, the individuals managing the property are terrible communicators. It took a lot of effort to arrange even the most basic things like check-in times for our stay. Other questions and concerns went unanswered entirely. Inside the apartment, it was clear that cleanliness and maintenance were not a priority. Our bed had sand in it! One of the glass cups had a lipstick imprint on it. There was mold along the windows and inside the bathroom. A lot of things were broken, too. Neither of the lamps in the room worked. The oscillating fan fell apart because it was missing two screws. The balcony chair had a broken support beam. The A/C did not work. Also, the area is right next to a homeless camp. While the unhoused will generally leave you alone, be aware that the area is a hotbed of drug activity. There were two men​ dealing drugs right across from the entrance of the apartment. The area is bad enough that my Uber refused to pick me up in front of my apartment for safety reasons. The plus to this apartment is that it is only a five minute walk to the train station. It's a steep walk uphill, but a very convenient, centrally located place. Also, that view is amazing. If you want to be charmed by a spectacular view, and can look the other way on things like poor communication and lackluster service, this place can be an amazing stay.

We also stayed in the “Wine” room. Was disappointing and not quite what I was led to believe I was getting. 🙁 I have stayed in many other older suites/hotels in other parts of Europe so i wasn’t expecting modern facilities. However i was not anticipating that we would have no natural light for 2 weeks as we were uncomfortable opening the wooden blinds inside the apartment due to the homeless people living on the property within a few feet of the front door and the street level “windows”. When we did try to crack open the blinds we found windows were in bad or dirty condition. Perhaps the 2nd floor units are a better option? Towels and bathroom tissue were another issue, they were not changed or supplied on a regular basis. We would come back after a long day only to find there had been no top up so we would have to run out to buy bathroom tissue! I understand some factors are outside your control and the police were visible on a regular basis however not being able to open a window or get some sunlight for 14 days was a bit over the top.

The location is unbeatable! Right by the train station and next to the sightseeing monuments in Porto. The room was also clean and had a nice balcony and the front desk was very receptive to questions via WhatsApp. Only downside is that the bed is not an actual bed it’s a pullout and we were unfortunately given a very late check in when promised a window.

We stayed in Wine room. It was advertised at £230 a night, reduced to £80 to make it feel like a bargin, but this is just a marketing trick as the room if definitely not worth £230 a night. We were so unhappy with this stay that we left after one night and stayed elsewhere. This was a first for us. The bed is a pull down bed which does not go away. The hydrolics are broken. The windows do not open. And the blinds are broken so you can't get any natural light in. The doors open directly onto an area where homesless people live, including going to the toliet. The room is not sound proofed, so you can hear the homeless drinking etc all through the night. There is a leak in the bathroom, and mould on the ceiling. There are much nicer places to stay in porto at this price point.

Highlights - easy check in and convenient location, but massively outweighed by the negatives. Very poor quality bed, merely a pull down with very thin mattress. Extremely poor bedding, no fitted sheets and mixed single and double sizes so constantly having to adjust, ended up on the bare mattress most nights. Bathroom is generous but in poor repair. Location is adjacent to an abandoned outdoor market that is frequented by drug addicts and dealers. In summary avoid

We were very pleased with this place neat, great location, plenty of room. The only thing that made us uncomfortable was the drug addicts hanging around the vacant place in front of the hotel.

Theoretically, this location is wonderful. You’re in the center of everything. Unfortunately you are also right next to an abandoned park where people who appear to be homeless congregate. I read this in the reviews and thought that the reviewers were just being biased towards homeless folks who generally keep to themselves. However we saw someone smoking crack 3 times. Once he approached us to tell us that crack is legal and we shouldn’t call the cops. It was incredibly threatening. Those folks were often drinking, throwing things and exhibiting erratic behavior which made coming back to the apartment a source of anxiety rather than comfort. Unfortunately this isn’t something the company can control but you should be aware when booking. Additionally, there are a few things the company could improve. The apartment is cleaned basically but had plenty of cobwebs in corners and crumbs(?) under furniture. It could use a regular deep cleaning. Lastly, the furnishings are all conversion furniture so they are not comfortable. The mattress on the main bed is a Murphy bed and is very thin. The pictures made me think it was a permanent bed so be warned and adjust expectations accordingly. On the plus side the company was very easy to communicate with and prompt when getting back to me. I liked the people i met and wish I could leave a better review.

Had a grat time, right in the middle of everything, less than 5 mins feom the train station and had great recommendations for dinner from hoast

Very well located to the main things to see in Porto

This apartment is divine. The views are the best part. I had my apartment on the first floor facing the back.. the communication with the staff was great. They send me all the information and answered all my questions. They even brought me an iron I wanted the next day! The cathedral is literally 3 minutes walk from the place. And all major sites 6-10 minutes walk. Excellent local restaurants, a mini market near by, Starbucks, local bakeries, shops and the bay is 10 minutes walk.

Very secluded ans very clean

Location of the property is both excellent and poor. It’s just a minute away from the Porto Cathedral, but it is also next to a homeless and drug area. I did not feel safe going in and out of the apartment , even though homeless never bothered us. Apartment itself is ok, but I didn’t feel that I was completely clean. Hosts were wonderful and accommodating . That being said , I would not stay there again nor would I recommend it to anyone.

Host was great at communicating how to access property, what to do, etc, and made the process really easy. Location was perfect for accessing things. Highly recommend.

The property was centrally located and clean. Outside the property there were drug users shooting up at all times of the day and night, it was scary and less than optimal.

owners did their best at making our stay good… great communication before and during our stay. Location is excellent but there are some issues w homeless people around. They never bother us, however. The apartment was in great shape.

The location of this property was in a great location. 5 minutes from the main Porto bridge and the Cathedral and central to transport. However, this is a very authentic location where we had homeless people right outside our apartment window with some occasionally sitting the step outside the apartment. We arrived with the apartment not being very obvious and the first thing we saw were the homeless people appearing to be taking drugs. For 3 girls together we were ok but not suitable for someone alone. The apartment itself was ok, not what the pictures showed, we didn't have a balcony and the shutters did not open enough for us to sit and look out the windows. It could also be noisy at night due to the homeless people outside. However, we received a lovely custard tart on our arrival and the company were really good at answering questions via whatapp. We were flying late on our last day and we could leave our suitcases in a sister apartment block around 10 minutes away. This location looked much nicer so it was a shame we were not staying there. Overall we were a little disappointed and felt a little misled by the pictures on the website but the apartment was basic and had what we needed.

Beautiful view of the city.

We stayed in Bridges apartment. It’s view was the homeless in the area. My traveling companions were rattled by a call out of a homeless woman on our arrival telling tourists to go away. One night there was some early morning yelling by the local homeless that woke us up. Inside the apartment was clean and felt very safe. Pillow cases on the extra pillows would have been nice and maybe a couple more towels especially for the kitchen. It is small but really you aren’t in it long. It was a short walk to most restaurants. Beds were comfortable. Approx 12 min walk all downhill to the Duoro River. It’s all downhill so remember it’s all up hill on the way back. This is great for younger people and couples. I don’t know if I would recommend for young families with children. We were three older women travelling without our significant others.

Parking was limited and difficult. There was a group of homeless people hanging out front. I know that the owners have no control over that but if I was a single woman I would feel uncomfortable. The unit was very nice and clean and the bed was comfortable