I have just arrived with my family from London, I used Airbnb to reserve in New York before in a bussiness trip, so took chance with family. The flat and the owner got a lot of good reviews added to the location.
To start with, the location is a dream for a family, safe, loads of shops, steps away from all major sites in the city, 10 minutes max on foot to London eye, Big Ben, Buckingham palace, the national galery, picaddely square, china town, are next door. All food chains are meters away, some works till very late, Tesco, Sinsebury, Marks and Spencer food, Co operative supermarkets work 24/7 with all possible family supplies and even snaks. Leicester square and Piccadily tube stations are minutes walking, so linked to greater London, bus stop round corner. A street that is for walking only most of the day with many nice resturants. A cinema feet away where we witnessed opinig for expendable II and movie stars on red carpet.
The flat itself is on third floor, we didn't find problems with stairs but could be little hard with people with bad knees. What you see and read is what we found, a big flat that could accomodate a family of five easily, a bathroom with a bathtub, a wet room with toilet, sink and shower, so, no morning complains from kids, a kitchen that is perfect with all appliances, washer, dishwasher, big fridge, microwave, loads of plates, cups etc. Big leaving room with modern easily transferable sofabed and big LED screen and DVD player, perfect wirless internet that is very fast and reliable so kept us connected. two good sized bedrooms each had nice spaces for luggage, new comfy Wooden floors. shortly, home away from home.
The host: can't say enough about how you could be so friendly and proffessional as this man, he responded almost immediately to all my mails, which were a lot, arranged every detail that could my vacation nicer, welcomed us in person when we arrived, showed us around the spotless flat, gave us all important tips about the appartment, how to use the double glassed windows to avoid the street noise, how to get around, and by the day of checking out, our flight was late, so agreed to keep our luggages till late in afternoon, and when we came to collect them we found that he got every single piece by himself all the way down,and insisted to accompany us to the pickup car. great man and great job welldone. Thank you Mike from my family and they already hope to be there again.
Tips: reserve London travelcard before coming that covers all public transportation cheap, fast and efficint, could be mailed before you come and saves time and money, online reservation of major attractions with fast track saved us many hours on lines to visit and enjoy all what London offers especially in busy summer holidays.