We travel a lot and this is a first time we leave a negative feedback as we have never come across such a careless host even if we were offered compensation at the end.
Good points about the flat: light flat & location
Bad points:
•No direct contact with anyone on arrival & departure. We picked up a key form a local store & just close the door on departure. No house guide or verbal explanations with someone at the property when you get there. Check in is at 5.00 pm (as advertised) & unless you are willing to pay some costs no arrangements whatsoever will me be made to make easy for you.
•Pile of rubbish with flies & bad smell on the “lovely terrace” making it very impossible to use (we close the door) even though it’s one of the main feature.
•Food storage: Food has been left from many guests
•Kitchen - Work surfaces in the kitchen was packed with food. Very little space for the preparation – not big cooking just a quick breakfast and things for children.
•Fridge – Packed with leftovers from previous guests. No space for additional things = our food. According to James food was left for guest’s use. In reality, fridge was not cleaned for very long time & the worse was the smell (stuff that went off with stain of spilled drinks…)
•Living space: We smelt something bizarre but at first we could not figure out what it was. Then our 3 ½ year old founds a dirty wet cloth under the radiator that had really bad smell. James later told us (wrote after our departure) the radiator was leaking so this cloth was “there by design” to quote him.
•No DVD remote control so nearly impossible to play movies for our kids
•All windows are single glazed & the air is passing through so the living room / kitchen are very noisy as they give on the main square.
•Broken shower handle making it hard to operate (impossible for children)
Hygiene was obviously not a priority and James was quite cool about it like we were his mates using this flat for free and not paying guests. We have stayed at his apartment 4 x nights. He was not available even though he said he would come.
We really would have appreciated if somebody was available to come and deal with these few hospitality / hygiene related things there and then, since James was clearly busy.
According to James we were really “not lucky” (apologises for the rubbish on the terrace & unavailability).
As compensation he has refunded us 50 pounds (for the cleaning cost?).
In our few exchange by direct messaging he has stayed arrogant finding the excuses why it was normal for no one to deal with the issues we had.
We found him arrogant, not serous with lack of care for his customers