I've never had a bad Airbnb experience before, so it's not comfortable to have to write this. But, the experience dealing with Charles management was so poor, I had to present the facts of my experience. No one likes long reviews, so I'm going to keep this to the point. The main problem we experienced during our stay was no working toilets! If you can try to imagine what it would be like living in a house with no working toilets, it's obviously a catastrophic problem. We had to use public toilets during our entire stay. Both toilets here didn't flush properly. The upstairs one never worked -the downstairs one didn't work for the first half of the trip. Eventually as we neared the end, it would take about 3 flushes to finally work with 15 minutes of time in between to fill. For 5 guests, that obviously isn't going to work, so we found local toilets at various coffee shops and restaurants that we went to.
I notified Charles of this within the first couple of hours of our check in. They said they couldn't get a plumber out that day. This type of problem is considered an emergency and there's always a plumber willing to come out for emergencies, though it will cost a little more money. This lack of getting anyone to come out to assist us lasted the entire trip. So, we had to contact Airbnb for advice. They said we could move to another house, but there were none available in this area that could fit our family. I asked to be put in direct touch with the handyman, because Charles always took several hours to respond to our messages. The last few days of the trip, the handyman said he could come over, but we had to give him a 3-4 hour window of time where we'd be home. Obviously, we are on vacation and our days were booked with non-refundable excursions. So, we never could arrange a time for them to visit. We told them from the beginning they had permission to enter the flat to fix the toilets if we weren't there, but they said they didn't have a fob for the main front door (really?). (Due to the severity of the problems we were experiencing, I asked the management company to please get the owner involved and to contact me, because I as a homeowner would never allow guests to stay even one day in my house with non working toilets, but I never got that contact.)
Another issue we ran into (which I mention more just as an example of how this management company works) is the key for the flat is a 15 minute walk from the flat (so a 30 minute round trip walk). After a 17 hour travel day and us being exhausted, we certainly didn't want the whole family standing on the sidewalk with luggage for half an hour while one of us walked to get the key. So we had to arrange for our shuttle to stop there on the way to get the key (which they charged an extra $10 pounds for). I almost got hit by a car traveling 40 mph on the busy street trying to cross (literally by 2 feet). When we checked out, we told Charles that we were going to follow the checkout instructions they had sent us and drop the key through the mailbox on the way out of the flat. They said we needed to walk the key back to the original location and if we didn't do so they would charge us at least $50 pounds. I sent them a picture of the checkout instructions stating we could put them through the mailbox. They said "oh, you are correct" and that the information had been since changed. They asked if I could walk the keys to the store. I did so, because I am a good person, but this is how this management company works. Threaten first, verify later.
What was most stunning about this experience is after we got home, they sent a request for $147 dollars for an "unnecessary handyman visit." I literally had no idea what they were talking about. No handyman ever came to the flat during our entire stay. I told them this clearly and denied the charge. They escalated the charge request to Airbnb! (Airbnb immediately denied their claim as unfounded, of course.) I don't know how much of this management company was incompetence vs vindictiveness, but either way, it was the worse management experience we've ever had.
About the flat itself. Great location (as many others have said). A little more cramped inside than expected, but besides the toilets, most other things worked fine. Having only one set of keys for 5 people was challenging, as we didn't always want to go everywhere together every second of the day. I wouldn't recommend more than 4 adult sized people for this flat.
The neighborhood was wonderful. Great walkability (just look both ways very carefully if you live in a country where they drive on the right side of the road). Many London drivers and bicyclists are reckless in their driving. Pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way here!
Great restaurants and pubs nearby. We would definitely return to Notting Hill, but we definitely will never rent a property managed by this management company.