Three friends stayed for 29 days in February. We were excited about the potential charm of the flat from the listing, but we unfortunately had challenges that made the month quite stressful. The host was fortunately very communicative and quick to respond, nice, and generally helped to resolve items as quickly as possible, through the open items were the most frustrating and negatively impactful to our experience.
These were the most unfortunate issues that hampered our experience:
1) WiFi issues: This was our biggest problem, as we all work remotely. We were without internet for 3 days in our first week and 5 days later in our trip. South Africa has it's own issues related to power and internet, but the WiFi issue was specific to the flat. It was eventually resolved and we had stable WiFi/internet the last week, but it came too late and we were seriously stressed to find alternatives for internet.
2) There were no fans in the flat. Aside from this being normal in most Airbnbs, it's also summer in South Africa and gets hot, especially when there is not good airflow in the flat due to the setup and location of windows. After we requested fans, the host would not support this. The air inside was often stagnant and sleeping at night was not comfortable on many nights. Opening one window helped, but this also led to excessive mosquito bites since there are no screens. Simply adding fans to the bedrooms would greatly improve the comfort.
3) The setup of the flat is somewhat odd. The photos looks beautiful, but the perspective in person was not as nice. The showers worked but are quite an odd setup. The flat is smaller/tighter than you expect from the photos. I would not recommend that you stay here with more than 2 people/2 couples because there is a lack of common space.
4) We dealt with bad smells in the bathroom drains and drainage problems for the output water that went to the back garden, which caused a bad smell in the back and excessive mosquitoes and bugs that thrived in the water. A plumber was dispatched, but the problem needs to be fully dealt with to stop the backup of drainage water, bugs, and smells.
To end on a positive note: The host was very communicative and responsive through Airbnb. She was also super flexible with check-in and check-out since there weren't reservations the day prior or right after us. We greatly appreciated this level of support and service.