On arrival the property, it is in a good location and has a historical look to it. To access the property you follow the instructions given by the host, which were simple enough.
Though it is not the host responsible for communal areas and front door, don't expect the front door to be secure as it shakes when touching it, the communal is unwelcoming, plus others left entrances open especially at night.
On entering the apartment, I was surprised to find the apartment door is not as safe as I hoped, can see to the landing from inside the apartment and the door shakes too.
Looking around the apartment all seemed fine, apart from it didn't look like the image on Airbnb. It looked clean and tidy and no bad smells. However, on visiting the bathroom it looked like someone has just used it, the bath, floor and towels were all wet and dropping, the towels had been hung up around the bathroom to dry. What else was shocking was the washing machine was on and loud. At the time we just accepted it and got on with our visit to London and arrangements as we were not going to be in the apartment 24/7, towels and bathroom could dry and we would lock are valuables up when going out.
On returning for the first evening, the doors to the building were open with bikes keeping them open, cold air racing about the building and people talking, shout at the top of their voices and smoking. Again, not the hosts fault but something they should be aware of for safety reasons.
Once inside the apartment, heating was on and the place was warm, however, in the smaller bedroom the radiator would not work, would switch it on and it would switch off, do a buzz and not come back on. The people in the room wrapped up with throws that were found in the wardrobe, this kept them warm all night.
The main bedroom, was to hot and you couldn't turn off the radiator, I think the reason for this is because they is damp wall caused by rain/leaking pipes etc. The plant in the room is covered in black mold spots. There is other damp patches around the apartment too. So any one with asthma like myself really should not stay in this apartment.
Also, be advised that the duvet covers don't fit the size of the duvets, as at first in the main room the duvet was to small for the bed, after removing the duvet cover it fit.
We rented an apartment so we could cook food while staying in London, that dream was shattered the following morning. When trying to cook breakfast, we noticed the hob to the cooker was broken, cracked right across the top of hobs, we tried to cook, and were a breakfast at home would take 30/40 mins, this breakfast took 1 and half hours to heat the food. This was not acceptable, so we decided we would eat out the rest of our time in London.
We did wash the pots and keep the place tidy. We notices that they was only enough hot water to wash the morning pots, but thought nothing of this as, it might of been a heating system to warm up the water and would be warm enough for the night time.
However, after arriving back in the evening which was late, there was still no hot water, we tried to check the heater and heating system but nothing changed or heated up the water. I contacted the host, who read the message about 9ish pm give or take. But no reply or response. So no hot water and no baths/showers for us that night, this includes washing any pots we used for drinks etc.
The following morning we tidy up and put all the rubbish in the bin, but could not wash pots. As we left at 9:50am, I received a message about the issues in the apartment, that it was my fault for not reporting them and a reminder to check out, and following steps required. No apologies or asking if my stay was good.
I didn't know I had to do any sort of check-in or report anything to the host, nothing was explained about this in the beginning or when I booked the apartment. When staying in a hotel those things are explained at start of the stay. Plus when I did report thing it got ignored until the following day a good 12 hours later. I can only assume if I did report issues they would have been ignored especially if at late hours or after 9pm.
The good points are in a close area to central London, tube and Uber rides, and bikes. Lots of shops, pubs, takeaways and restaurants including entertainment. Plus Historical building or looks like one