Friendly Rentals

We found ourselves deeply disappointed AND ITCHING by our choice to go with friendly Rentals. It went from bad to worst. We decided to rent a flat vs hotel for more space and a kitchen and a more local experience. When we arrived at the rental office, it was a huge room with 50+ workers on computers and 3 people working the desk, so a lot of overhead for their business. And as we suspected, their profit does not go into maintaining a good product or customer service. Our place was not as advertised. It was smaller, darker and the floor was crumbling apart. It smelled musty and we immediately began to sneeze. (Be careful their clauses say that there are variations in the properties and you may not get the one you picked!) my husband decided to forty to exchange the place, knowing we would likely lose our deposit. The office was uncooperative and told us we would lose our entire payment if we switched! We decided to stay and make the best of it. Bad choice. By the second night I had bites on my neck in clusters and rows of 3– the telltale sign of bedbugs. Over the coming days more bites showed up. We washed everything and moved to Le meridian. Everything stopped and we were able to heal. We are back in the U.S. But all our luggage is sealed up in the garage! Don’t trust Friendly Rentals. They could care less about customers, or their own properties!

This was awful: I don’t recommend this company at all!
–There were cockroaches everyday in the entrance
–Things were not working, or very used: the TV was not working; the coffee machine was not working; the blinders were stuck so nights were VERY short.
–Mattresses are awful: backaches everyday
–LOT of humidity in one of the bathroom: IT STINKS. I told them, they did not care.
–The apt was not like the picture: painting are old, chairs are used, and there were bugs in the apt (cockroaches are pretty disgusting)
–On top of that, friendly rental does not provide you with ANY SERVICE. One of the coffee maker was leaking (with boiled water) so I used a second one, and it just exploded on me, burnt me very badly and I ended up at the Emergency Room. This shows you how things are badly maintained. I called friendly rental: they did not care, they did not replace the coffee maker (we did not have any during our entire stay of 1 week) and they did not any thing to make it up. They did not fix anything (see the above list with all the problems), they did not do any discount. They could not care less. And THEY LIE: they say they would fix things or get back to me, and THEY NEVER DID. They take benefit from you being a stranger and being here a short period of time.
I don’t trust this company.
The first thing they do is ASK YOU TO PAY CASH, AND take a deposit from your credit card AND COPY ALL THE NUMBERS OF YOUR CREDIT CARD. After I gave them more than 1000 euros, I did not exist any more and they didn’t provide me with ANYTHING.
It is better to book a hotel or to rent from Air BNB. Trust me, don’t spend your money with them!!!

I consider myself a seasoned traveler, as I travel over 100,000 miles a year and stay in hotels all over the world. I decided on this trip to try renting a condo from «Friendly Rentals» for my partner and my family on our recent trip to Barcelona.
Truth be told, it was an extremely embarrassing situation. The company represented to me a 4 bedroom apartment with a number of amenities that just did not exist. One of the bedrooms was really a loft, where the ceiling was less than 6 feet clearance so you could not stand up, (that is if you can actually negotiate the stairs). The stairs were so steep and dangerous that we could not use the space.
The worst part of the whole thing was when I called to ask how we could fix this, the office manager would not speak to me and the girl on the phone desk was arrogant and unhelpful. They made no attempt to fix the situation, or to even apologize.
I would recommend «Vacation Rentals By Owner» VRBO if you want a more truthful experience.

friendly rentals né met pas les commentaires négatifs, l’appartement en photo paraissait 2 fois plus grand qu’en réalité et il n’était pas nickel au niveau propreté. Il manquait d’accessoires pour cuisiner et pour manger, le frigo était éteint à notre arrivée alors qu’il faisait au moins 30 degrés dans l’appartement, il n’y avait aucun rideaux alors que l’appartement était plein sud et en prime une aire de jeux pour enfant en face, cris et hurlements d’enfants jusqu’à 22h30, tout ça je l’ai dit à friendly qui n’a jamais publié mon commentaire et l’appartement est toujours dans les premiers à Berlin, méfiez vous.

Estuve alojada durante el Mobile World Congress en un apartamento muy céntrico. La verdad es que fue todo muy bien, desde el checkin hasta mi salida. La única pega era que al ser tan céntrico y al haber movido la feria de sitio, esta vez tenía que hacer trasbordos en el transporte público. Tendría que haberlo hecho igual estando en otro apartamento, así que me quedo muy satisfecha.

Barcelona is one of my favourite cities, a vibrant sub-​culture that is never the same each time, and this is probably my fifth visit. Unfortunately its popularity, and the strength of the EUR against the £, has made it more and more expensive. Last time I stayed was in a very mediocre hotel for over EUR100 per night, so this time I thought we’d rent a flat for a few days from one of the many agencies on the web. We selected Friendly Rentals as the choice was huge and the prices quite reasonable, and it was generally very successful with some reservations.
Self-​catering apartments in Spain all seem to have the same problem: absolutely minimal supplies when you arrive. The attitude appears to be, if you need it, buy it. This includes washing-​up liquid, dish-​cloths, loo rolls, salt, pepper, oil, etc. Obviously a supermarket will only sell in quantities far too great for a 4 or 7 day stay, not to mention the 100ml restrictions on liquids in hand-​luggage, so most of the provisions are left behind in the flat at the end of the stay. These are obviously perks for the cleaners or agents themselves and removed during cleaning, and the cycle repeats itself for the next tenant. Perhaps the idea is that you will be persuaded to eat out more and assist the local restaurant trade.
Having said that, the Jazz apartment provided by Art Apartments through Friendly Rentals was small but clean and well equipped enough, although the location of Barceloneta is very artisan. Expect large old buildings, narrow streets, washing on the balconies across the street so close you can practically touch, and a lot of noise and hubbub from dogs barking, people talking, scooters flying about, and the odd crash from the rubbish bins (or vehicles hitting each other). As this can get a bit tedious at night, make sure you have double glazed windows and air-​conditioning in the warmer months; this however won’t stop the creaking from the ageing buildings themselves, footfalls and noise from the other tenants, and if you have a flat several floors up, you need to be fit to climb the stairs there are no lifts in this part of town.
As compared to an hotel, the price of EUR530 for 5 nights was quite reasonable given the facilities, Satellite TV, DVD/​CD player, a/​c, heater, cooker hob (but no oven), microwave, etc. and a refurbished style from the best that Ikea can offer. The young lad from Belarus that arrived on the first day to show us round was very personable and helpful with his rather limited English, but never materialised at the end of the stay to check out the flat. As several things were missing from the inventory at the start we thought we might need to explain, but our deposit was returned in full under the door (in cash) on the last night, so we assumed their organisational abilities had room for improvement perhaps.
Things to note: make sure you bring adaptors for UK electrical equipment, chargers, etc., these were not provided (our flat had very few power points, and we ended up using the toaster on the dining table to allow the kettle to boil!).