Tim is obviously a great host, and has a wonderful apartment. Believe all the reviews you read. My review is not five stars only because of the Notting Hill Carnival which I will get to below. Don't let my review discourage you in any way for other times of the year. Tim's flat is in a great area, lovely restaurants and stores near by and Tim is a caring and personable host. I do recommend his flat, just not during Carnival.
Interestingly (or, in our case, unfortunately) the largest street fair in Europe was taking place while we were there and we failed to understand this and the ramifications. The description included mention of the fair, but the information did cause me to to suspect anything was out of the ordinary. The fair was HUGE, it was a Rio/New Orelans type of event. The restaurants and shops were boarded up for 3-4 days. It was like a hurricane was coming as the residents stocked up in the boarded up grocery stores. We are not Carnival type of people so we tried not to return back to the flat before 10pm, but still managed to see way more than we wanted. The kids were amused, but my wife's steely gaze made her feelings unspoken but clear. The music started at 6am on Sunday and the music and noise went until 2:30am on both Sunday and Monday evenings. Tough to get to all the attractions when the kids need to sleep late into the morning everyday, but we scaled back and had a good visit. Ultimately the neighborhood was nothing like advertised under these circumstances. When I think of a carnival, I don't think New Orleans or Rio, I think of something closer to a street fare. I don't think of 9000 police and plywood over every place of business.
We still had a very good time in London and Tim's flat was a good value even under these circumstances. It is nicely located. However we would have loved to have been able to dine in the area at the end of the day and take a leisurely stroll back to a quiet apartment. At the end I did manage to get coffee and pastries on the lat two mornings. I understand why people love Tim's place. We just wanted to love it more.
In the end, if we were in London during the Carnival, we would stay as far away from Notting Hill as possible. If I returned at any other time of year, I would find this a desirable rental.