Booking :
One major requirement for an apartment in Madrid is the air conditioning. At the time of booking, the A/C symbol was showing up in the apartment description. We later noticed that other sites describing the Beaudelaire III did not show the A/C symbol, so we proposed to change our reservation to choose another apartment with A/C, but the rentals rep. replied «… they finally installed air conditioning again in the living room. They will also install air conditioning in the other rooms» so we kept the apartment reservation. Upon our arrival, we readily noticed that there was in fact no air conditioning in any room whatsoever. There is an old broken and disconnected outside A/C unit on the microscopic balcony, but no inside unit. The representative had lied to us, no one ever performed any recent A/C installation. We ended-up spending 5 extremely hot nights (40°C) in this apartment, all four of us sleeping in the central room so we could share the two extremely noisy (industrial type) portable fans. The apartment was so uncomfortable that we left as early as possible in the morning and came back as late as possible, and we could not cook any meals there.

Service :
For all our previous rentals, the agency or owner gave us an appointment at the location or were living nearby. For the Beaudelaire III, I had to walk 20 minutes to get to the rental office to read and sign additional contract paperwork and obtain the apartment key (a taxi would not have taken less time given the city congestion). This means my family had to wait with our luggage piled-up on a street corner near the apartment for nearly 1 hour (no way we were going to walk this distance with our luggage).

The apartment :
The internet page mentions «incredible decoration» and other superlative statements. In fact, all the walls are painted flat white (dirty) and the decoration consists of cheap commercial pictures laminates; believe us it is very ugly. Also, the table and ceiling lamps are all damaged (one bedroom lamp shade was burnt). It appears there has been no maintenance work for years in this apartment.
The is no clothing storage in the bedrooms (only cabinet is in the living room)
Not a single door closes properly, not even the WC room.
The windows wooden blinds hardware was broken so we could not shut them tightly to minimize the noise from the street.
The apartment housekeeping is horrible : dirty and sticky floors, dirty walls, ceiling paint rotten, swollen and detaching from the bathroom ceiling. We had to wash the dishes before use : traces of juice in the glasses, greasy plates.
There was no toilet paper (1/2 roll provided), no napkins, no cleaning towels, no dishcloth, no laundry soap, no salt & pepper, etc. – so you have to purchase all those basics.
The description mentions a balcony : this balcony is not accessible, locked with a safety grille, and if it was accessible it is so small (40 cm) there is no point in going there. The broken air conditioning outside unit takes ½ of the balcony surface)

Location :
The apartment is well located to visit Madrid but there is a bar just 1 floor below the Beaudelaire III, so the place is so noisy we could not sleep before 2 AM (remember : there is no air conditioning). After the bar closed, it was drunken people singing and shouting until 4 AM every morning.
There is also a strong street light in front of the apartment window (no obscurity possible).

In summary, this is our worst rental experience ever (out of ±20 rentals so far).