Unfortunately I had to check out 2 days earlier due to the host’s refusal to properly heat the home and bedroom.
The bedroom has old single pane windows, which are not the best for UK weather, although I can understand it is part of the building’s character. Upon check in the host told me heating goes off at 10pm and is back at 7am. Around 4pm I contacted the host as the radiator was off and the room was freezing. I never received a response until the host returned home a few hours later and turned on the heating to a very low setting. The room was still cold, and she knocked on my door around 10pm telling me she’d only just seen my message. When I told her it was still cold, I was assured that heating was on max (it wasn’t, as the radiator was barely warm), and she pulled down blackout blinds and curtains saying ‘that would help keep draught out’.
I was offered an electric blanket but told not to sleep with it. The electric blanket also didn’t work very well and was not really a solution, as the host admitted herself by telling me not to sleep with it. The next day the heating was off too, until I messaged her around 5pm asking which temperature it was on, as the room was still freezing. I decided to checkout and find somewhere else at this point, as it became clear that the host was unwilling to actually turn on the heating.
This was a very disappointing experience, and the first of its kind for me. I have used Airbnb for a long time and never met a host who was unwilling to heat their home in cold weather.
As for the many positive reviews of this room, I was incredibly disappointed as I expected an accommodating host. The only positive for me was the location as it was well served by many bus and train connections at short walking distance.