This was a beautiful apartment, in a beautiful location, in a beautiful city, but unfortunately, Sweet Inn, I felt was a face-less company, that was leveraging tech to get away from personal contact with clients, which to me is what Airbnb is about.
A bit of context: Sweet Inn has an application, which opens and closes the main door via your phone.
On the first night that I arrived at the apartment, there was no physical key waiting for me in the apartment.
The key was promised by text in the Sweet Inn application to be there when I arrived at the apartment.
The text in the application reads: "Open the door with the Sweet Inn application. Your key is in the apartment."
I searched for 20 minutes in the apartment once I had opened the door with the app - but I was not able to find the physical key in the apartment.
Therefore I contacted a member of Sweet Inn's staff via the Chat functionality within the Sweet Inn app.
I was told (via chat) that the physical key was attempting to be located, and that someone would get back to me asap.
An hour passed.
There was no update from Sweet Inn.
A point of note on why I wanted the physical key:
- I did not want to leave the apartment with a low battery - I was worried that if my battery died I would not be able to re-enter the apartment without a key.
After the hour had passed I phoned up Sweet Inn via their (thankfully) 24-hour number and said that there was no physical key here.
Someone then informed me that the key would be dropped off to me that evening.
Failings of Sweet Inn:
1. Failed to have a physical key in the apartment for when I arrived.
2. Failed to communicate with me, for an hour, as to what was happening, leaving me worried about what to do next. Therefore I had to initiate communication with Sweet Inn again; this time the issue was solved. If I did not get back in contact with Sweet Inn, would the issue of been solved? - I'm not sure, due to the lack of communication from Sweet Inn in regards to the issue.
Positives of the apartment:
1. The apartment is clean.
2. The apartment is well-located.
I loved Brussels, and I loved the apartment, but I would not want to stay with any apartment using Sweet Inn again, I would rather stay at an apartment where one is greeted by a local.