Albert’s flat is well furnished and quite modern looking. It’s on a busy street with decent transport links. There is also a nice park 5 minutes away. There are lots of grocery shops, cafes and bars within close walking distance.
Unfortunately we had a huge issue with the parking and I would not recommend this flat if you have a car. Before we booked this place we specifically asked about the parking as this was going to be a deal breaker for us being in London. Albert confirmed that there was street parking available for a reasonable fee (£12 per day) which we were fine with. However, upon our arrival we discovered that the price was actually £3 per half hour which meant paying almost £50 per day which is a huge difference. When I questioned Albert about this he wasn’t very helpful saying the prices changed all the time and there was nothing he could or would do or provide a permit. I subsequently found out that the charges had actually changed months ago and I was really disappointed that Albert hadn’t communicated this to us given that it was our only question and request and if I had known the charges were going to be that high I would have cancelled the booking within the cancellation period. Albert’s only solution was to park at a shopping center over 2 miles away for £8 per day with no overnight option.
To top it off, we then received an unwelcome visitor which is a huge security risk as the cleaner entered the flat on our penultimate day as our family were showering, believing that we had already checked out. This was not just a disruption but actually quite scary to think that someone could have been in the flat with all of our belongings in had we not been there.
The flat was also a little dirty, for example there was a filthy cooking tray in the oven and general dirt around the rooms. The kitchen bin also had existing trash in it. It would also have been useful to have a house manual detailing things like the WiFi code, where the trash should be taken and other useful information about the flat and the surroundings. The kitchen did not have basic things like washing liquid and there was no hand soap anywhere and only one toilet roll. There was also no iron. These small things don’t cost much but go a long way for the guest.
There is plenty of choice for air bnb’s in London and this is certainly not one I’ll be returning to unfortunately. We hope Albert takes on board this feedback for future guests to have a better and safer stay than we did.