My boyfriend and I recently spent six nights in Lucy’s studio apartment in South Yarra. Our original reservation in Prahran had been cancelled by the host about a month before our planned stay and Lucy’s studio seemed suitable alternative, reasonably priced in an equally attractive neighbourhood that was very close to the city. We were a bit concerned about parking as we had driven to Melbourne, but Lucy immediately assured me that there was always parking available on the street nearby (which there was). Lucy was in general very quick and polite in her responses and an overall approachable host. Check-in and check-out was easy and the times were flexible. When we arrived at the apartment, it was a bit smaller than expected but it was clean and Lucy had provided a lot of little extras like linen, plenty of crockery and cutlery and even books so we felt quite at home. There was also a popular café on the ground floor of the apartment building that had good food and good service.

Unfortunately, however, there were a few unpleasant issues with the apartment. First of all was the absence of the advertised wireless Internet. When I messaged Lucy about this, she told us that there was wifi available in the café downstairs. My boyfriend and I thought it was very misleading to advertise this as ‘included free wifi’ and felt short-changed. Secondly, the small electric heater was ineffective and the windows let in draughts of cold air even when closed, so the apartment was very cold. A third major issue we had was with the shower. Lucy had noted in her ad that the shower pressure was not of modern standard, but we did not understand this to mean it would be so low that taking a shower was an unpleasantly cold experience! The water temperature was also fiddly, being either too hot or too cold, and very hard to get to somewhere comfortable in between. Disappointingly, when I messaged Lucy about this, I received no response. On top of this the bathtub was quite old and dirty. We also had difficulty with the kettle, which was very leaky and left water all over the kitchen and the stairwell up to the apartment smelled strongly of gas. Finally, despite the apartment’s proximity to the CBD, it was located about 15 minutes from the train station so we often found it more convenient to just walk into town.

Overall our stay at Lucy’s apartment was adequate, but we would not have chosen to stay there had our previous reservation not been cancelled. I think our money could have been better spent elsewhere.