During my trip to London I spent 5 days at Erika’s place.
I found both the location and the room really nice. There’s a beautiful view of the city and overall the building is not that far from bus stops. Unfortunately there’s not an underground near the place, but it’s easy enough to move in the city by bus.
There are also some nice bars near the place and the supermarkets are 8-10 minutes by walk which is nice.
There was a misunderstanding at the beginning of our trip regarding the check in, as it was initially supposed to be through a lock but then changed.
I tried to get a hold of the host but I couldn’t, and was about to go some other place in fear of having to spend the night outside. Fortunately, we found some guys that lived in the building who opened the front door for us, and thankfully a lady living there was asleep so she opened the door for us, and apologized to us on behalf of the host. After that I did not get any message from Erika though.
Apart from that, our stay was quite nice as we managed to see the city and get a good night sleep.
However, there were some things that bothered me during my stay at Erika’s place. I’m sure it’s not her fault but they still happened at her place.
We went through some unpleasant behaviors we did not enjoy. Amongst the amenities listed in the listing ( sorry for the wordplay), the laundry wash was included. However, from the very first day the lady living there was like: I’m sure you’re not gonna use it because the other girl does not use it. Therefore I checked again if the laundry wash was included in the amenities, and it was.
We used it just once though, and only because we really needed to wash 2 or 3 pieces of clothing for the next day. However, on the day we did use it the girl was really not wanting us to use it and saying it was not included but she was making us a favor letting us use it.
Also, I washed my hair and since the blow dry was not in the room, I didn’t even bother to ask the lady in fear she would say the same thing she did for the laundry wash.
Also, in 1 or 2 occasions, I believe she was trying to be nice and entertain a conversation but honestly, she was just lecturing us and giving unnecessary life advice about how I’m meant to behave towards elders etc, which really made me feel uncomfortable to the point I was just standing there not knowing what to reply. Of course, I would’ve been happy to have a normal conversation, but I wasn’t expecting her to just lecture me as if I was some child who needs to be educated on life.
On yet another occasion, although she knew what mine and my sister’s nationality was, she told my mom during a conversation that she really disliked people of my nationality. I found that rather offensive and disrespectful.
Honestly, the whole time I just felt like an unwanted presence and a nuisance. I’ve travelled a lot and had a lot of Airbnb, hotel, hostel, and even Couchsurfing experiences. However, never in my life I’ve felt so unwelcome , although I was paying for my stay.
Of course not everything was negative, there were also some instances where the lady was nice to us and even brought us bottled water as she knew we didn’t like the taste of London’s tap water. However, overall I just felt like a nuisance she couldn’t wait to see leave the place.
So, yeah the place was nice, I really loved the view, but the experience was rather disappointing.
Best regards,
Alessia