Eliana is welcoming and kind, and the other housemates polite and considerate.
I recommend this place if you’re looking for an interesting intersection of nationalities and lifestyles. I do not recommend to anyone seeking solace, silence, or working atmosphere. The house is lively, and full.
So here are some important points you’ll need to decide if this is the place for you:
-It’s an old house, thin walls, single glazing.
-There are 6 bedrooms, and at least 6 people live in the house on a permanent basis.
-The kitchen is small, well-stocked with equipment, and the fridge space is tight. Some groceries are provided.
-Room 1, this room, is on the street side. If you’ve not slept amongst sirens and buses and rowdy pedestrians, you’ve not experienced London.
-Room 1 is also right at the front door. Often the sharers close the door quite firmly and it is clearly heard inside the room.
-Room 1 is is also under Eliana’s bedroom. She is a self-professed “night owl”. You will hear her on the chair at the computer upstairs, or around the house and in the kitchen.
-Outside Room 1 you might find anywhere between 1 and 5 bikes in the hallway.
-The easiest toilet to reach is towards the kitchen. You have to put your used toilet paper into the bin and not into the toilet. The plumbing is messed up and even a little toilet paper can cause a block. There is a second bathroom up a flight of stairs.
The owner (lives out and) doesn’t appear to care much for the care and maintenance that a grade-listed building deserves or warrants. Eliana keeps it ship-shape though, all remits and limitations considered.
Seeing that this is a “working” house, ie. not a guesthouse, there will be some obvious differences to accommodate in your expectations.
Here are some things I learned about Airbnb during my experience here and after reading other reviews and picking the brains of Customer Service.
Things you might not learn if you’re not a property owner yourself, or not attempted listing your property on the platform, but that would make the system more transparent and help decision-making as a customer:
-Some tenants have agreements with landlords to list on Airbnb. Fraudsters are blacklisted if found out.
-Airbnb has only concern with the very space you’re hiring privately - cleanliness, safety, security etc.
-Other spaces that are shared can be in any condition whatsoever.
-Building regs in particular are not a high priority (at least, I thought CO detectors were mandatory, I may be mistaken).
-While the brand is AirbnB, breakfast is not mandatory, and this is therefore a misnomer.
-Airbnb will handle any queries with exceptional manners and etiquette as only the (what to me sounds) Thai can provide. They remain in contact quite reliably.
Share this with your fellow Airbnb users.