Overall very disappointed. Let’s walk through the reasons why, since it’s not one big thing, but rather, as the saying goes, the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Check-in was a little tricky. We had some trouble following the instructions to get the keys. Once we got the keys and got inside, unlocking the door was a mess. Normally not a big deal, some locks can be weird, but a tiny heads up would have been appreciated. For context, this wasn’t a single moment of confusion; we had to fumble these locks open and closed the whole time we were there. So we open the door. The vestibule is fine. Floor’s clean. The wall around the light switches however, are not. It’s an ordinary kind of gunk that builds up from use, but is not what I expect to see in an apartment others have called “sparklingly clean”.
We get in, take off our shoes, head into the bedroom and find... nowhere to put our things. A dresser or someplace to put a suitcase of clothes that isn’t on the floor would’ve been nice, especially since the closet was basically full of Thomas’ things. A small part had been cleared, but as there were large suitcases in the bottom of the closet, I couldn’t really hang anything up.
Okay, fine. We’ve lived out of our suitcase for a week already, this isn’t a big deal.
So we head into the living space to get set up for the next day. The first thing we encounter are sticky notes on the cupboard doors telling us what’s inside. While this may seem nice to some, I thought it was amateurish. Would it have been better in a binder along with some local info, yes. Can I also just ignore them, yes. That was until we got to the note on the fridge that said: “Help yourself to fridge only!!!” This was infuriating because a) the contents of the fridge were a package of butter, a bottle of ketchup, two cans of Heineken, and the last third of a pint of milk and b) part of the reason we chose this listing was because breakfast was supposed to be included. I didn’t expect anything fancy, just some cereal and milk, bread for toast, eggs maybe. So now I’m pretty upset. Maybe a cup of tea sitting in front of the TV would help? That’s when I notice the couch is extremely faded from use and the carpet has that feeling underfoot if being old and unwashed. So we have some tea at the table and go to put the cups in the dishwasher to find it smells, probably to do with the food remnants in the bottom. Great.
Well, it’s getting late, we need to get to bed. We take our bathroom things into the bathroom, which seems fine. My husband is considering taking a shower so I go to get the towels I saw on the bed and they are atrocious. Rough and thin. I have gotten better towels at hostels that were half the price of this listing. But I wanted to give Thomas the opportunity to fix it. We had a short message exchange that concluded there were no other towels, he was out of town and couldn’t do anything, and if I went out and purchased new towels I would be reimbursed. But that meant I had to spend my vacation shopping for towels that I would then have to wash and dry. Not my idea of a great excursion.
But none of it can be figured out until morning so my husband takes a shower anyway and describes it as drying himself with a loofah. He also notes the shower head has possibly never been descaled. Another small detail that separates this from being surface cleaned to really cleaned. We get in bed and notice that the sheets are torn on the side and instead of the four fluffy pillows in the photo we have one flat pillow each. At this point, I really don’t know how I could have expected any different. The bed is comfy enough to not inhibit sleeping, and the pillows are just flat, and not lumpy. Brilliant. The next day we really learn how out of the way it is, which wouldn’t be a big deal if it wasn’t so disappointing otherwise as well. The closest tube station is a 17-20 minute walk. Getting to and from Central London is probably 35-40 minutes. This part I knew going in, but it really started to wear when coupled with everything else.
Thomas checked in about the towels on our last of 5 days, kind of cementing for me that this whole gig is an afterthought. I kept thinking about what would happen if there was an emergency and he was out-of-town and there was no one else in London to help us. There’s also the price that was so incongruous with the experience we had. The long and the short of it is, I cannot in good faith recommend staying here, especially not at the current listing price.