The space is well-designed, full of light, and beautifully furnished. The patio has glorious views of Table Mountain!
Unfortunately, summertime is often extremely windy in Cape Town. We were not able to enjoy the patio due to very high winds! Be warned if booking for a summer visit.
The windows in the master bedroom have significant gaps and are single-glazed. The high winds made sleeping at night challenging.
The bathrooms both up and downstairs need some maintenance. The master bedroom shower was slow to drain; the flusher on the toilet was finicky; the tiles on the floor are loose and move while you’re walking; the basin tap is loose and hits against the mirror when turning it on. The downstairs bathroom door and shower door were both slightly off their hinges.
The downstairs bedroom was shown to include two beds, one that is accessible from the ground, and a loft bed accessed be a steep ladder. When we checked-in we noticed that the bottom bed had been removed and replaced with a desk. My partner’s 69 year old mother was staying with us, and had to use the upper bed. We offered to trade and give her the master bedroom but she said the stairs were also too steep. The bedding on the downstairs loft bed did not smell fresh. There is a carpet beneath the loft mattress which smells very dusty.
The location is not ideal if, like us, you enjoy walking to explore the area. The house is right off Victoria Street which, for lack of better words, feels dodgy. We had stayed in other neighbourhoods previously in Cape Town where we could walk freely during the day and night (with all the expected cautions). At this location we walked the first day down to the nearby Old Biscuit Mill Neighbour Goods market, but felt very unsafe on Victoria Street and the side roads, meaning that from that day onwards we drove or Ubered everywhere.
We were able to check-in early which we really appreciated. Check-in felt quite rushed and awkward compared to other check-in experiences. None of the house “quirks” were explained to us, such as finicky flushers, slow flowing cold water taps or the gaping windows. If they had been, we would have been more forgiving and accepting of the maintenance needs.
Check-out (which was on New Year’s Day) was listed as 8pm. We received a message from Gareth late on New Years Eve asking if we could let the cleaner in at 9:30am on New Years Day! We were a bit shocked by this late request especially since it was New Years Day (no explanation needed) and our check-out time was 8pm. Gareth then explained that there had been an AirBnB mixup and new guests were checking-in on New Year’s Day. If all of this had been explained during check-in or with advanced notice this would have been okay with us. However, we only found out late on New Years Eve which meant we had to change our plans and complicated the end of our one month holiday in South Africa as we had planned to keep our bags at the Airbnb until 8pm. Gareth offered to let us keep our bags at the Airbnb and then go back after the new guests had checked in to retrieve them, however this felt a bit odd to us as we didn’t know the guests and didn’t feel right leaving our bags there.
The space is beautiful and if you’re not concerned about walkability this might be the right spot for you. The patio is unreal if you’re there at the right time and can enjoy it!