Style over substance
The first thing to stay about this Airbnb is that the communication from Maurice the host is excellent - as good as it gets. Maurice’s response times were the best I have experienced in many years using Airbnbs. He was very helpful when a glitch arose (not of his making) and he immediately arranged an alternative apartment in the same building.
The second positive about this Airbnb, is the central location - its within a very short walk of the beautiful leafy parliamentary environs of West Perth; it’s also close to Kings Park, the city centre, and if you’re driving, the freeway entrances to Perth’s northern beaches, and to the south and the east; it’s also just a short drive to the western beaches, and a longish walk to Lake Monger or the cafe cultures of Subiaco and Leederville.
Other good points about the apartment include great aircon throughout, a good fridge, stove and oven, very large TVs in both the living room and bedroom, a large comfortable bed, a modern bathroom with great washer/dryer combo and good hot water.
But there the positives end. The apartment I stayed in, and the one I was initially booked into - was, well, gloomy. The lighting was too dim in each of the rooms (kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and living room). The only well-lit area was the hallway. While the two TVs are large (65” or 70”), you can’t get free-to-air channels, as there is no aerial connection, simply none. You can make use of the TVs if you are a subscriber to one or more of the streaming services such as Netflix or Prime etc, but if you’re not, or your favourite shows are on local Australian channels, too bad.
There’s very limited - meter only - parking, Monday through Saturday, with a two hour time limit so. a car could be a real handicap if your staying at these apartments.
One of the biggest issues for me was the absence of natural light in the apartment. The only view from any of the windows in the apartment I stayed in was from the bedroom, looking onto the traffic of usually very busy Hay Street. From the other windows, which are small and few, all you will see are brick walls. The effect is one less of a relaxing apartment, than of a well decorated cell. The single sofa is not comfortable. Getting into the apartment requires using a code to access the building’s front door keys, then another code to access the apartment keys once inside the building. No big deal, except it’s almost impossible to see the numbers on the key pad, day or night. Similar problem with the stove dials, which are barely decipherable. The cutlery, while an interesting shape and colour (gold), is almost unusable, a triumph of style over substance. Which more or less sums up both the apartment I booked, and the one I eventually stayed in. Both were small and closed in, and more style than substance. If you’re going to be out from when you wake to when you come home at night, using the apartment just to to sleep in, it’ll be okay, like a hotel room. If you’re expecting something more, a place with an outlook of anything other than an external wall, or some natural light or greenery for example, or you just want to invite a couple of friends for over dinner while you’re in town, you’ll probably want to look elsewhere.