My hubby and I had a nice experience at the Hollywood Rd studio, as it is very conveniently located in the Sheung Wan district, near Central and a decent place to crash. Did not actually meet Brendan in person or speak to him. He is very responsive and informative via email when we communicated. He provided clear directions to his place and a useful tourist and Hong Kong information guide in the studio.

Check-in is after 12:30pm and we had been in contact about arriving before or after that time and that we preferred to check in after studio is clean, even if later. We were not able to call from the airport 30 minutes before we arrived to the flat because the SIM card in our phone was not working correctly and we took a taxi to the Hollywood Rd address and arrived before 2:00pm and called his phone number so we could be taken to the flat. Brendan’s mom sounded annoyed at us on the phone for not calling at least 30 minutes ahead at the airport and she said the place might not be clean yet. Anyway, a nice and friendly staff person came, told us the place was clean and he just needed to change the sheets, and took us to the flat nearby. Guided us through the amenities.

The studio is located on the Upper Lascar arts/antique/curio alley, a neat little market with chinoiserie souvenirs. Studio is near the Sheung Wan MTR subway station, near arts district, a trendy expat bar/restaurant area (Bridges), eateries, markets, graffiti/street art, and convenience stores, charming neighborhood. Mix of the old and new, Chinese and Western, developed and developing....

Be forewarned: the studio is pretty small and tight, perfectly fine for one guest, but with two guests and luggage, it does feel cramped – very authentic typical Hong Kong experience! Bed is mighty close to the TV (as in photo). Also, no elevator/lift, but luckily only a few floors up. Place was clean and provided good basic accommodations and amenities. Brendan does a good job of marketing and photographing the place, because the place in real life looks more older and run-down, and less modern and new than in the pictures (lots of nicely decorated, close-up shots in the photos :) ). Urban shabby chic, as they say. Unfortunately, never got to use rooftop deck, which looked nice. Bed was large and comfy; actually two beds pushed together, but perfect for us after a long day.