I hate to write bad reviews, but our 10-day booking was very challenging top to bottom and severely impacted the enjoyment of our stay in London. Very much wish we had booked elsewhere.
First and foremost, during our visit, there was a very strong smell of cigarette smoke in the unit. We're unsure if this was from a prior guest or another unit in the building (since the hallway often smelled of smoke, as well). Regardless, the smell was there during our whole stay, despite attempts to open all windows and spray Fabreeze. To help address the problem early, we immediately contacted management and received zero response for several days. We were only able to engage with management after involving AirBnB support. Not great... with an impact on my wife's asthma and my allergies.
We also encountered several other challenges with the booking. In fact, the number of issues actually became a running joke between my wife and me...leading us to often question "how much worse is this going to get???" Here's a quick list:
- Patio and large door is amazing.. BUT the restaurants below vent near the unit and make the porch smell like a greasy kitchen
- Unit photographs super well and has a good design aesthetic... BUT there are a decent amount of small maintenance issues that should be corrected by management
- Location is perfect and accessible to tube... BUT agreed with the other reviews that noise is a problem. On two or three of the nights it felt like people above and below us were hosting a party until 5am (seriously). It was actually unclear what was happening since it sounded like the unit above us was throwing furniture around all night... still a mystery.
- The handle/Door to Master Bathroom sticks - DO NOT close all the way. This caused my wife to be trapped in the bathroom for 5 minutes! Funny, but could have been a problem.
I hope this helps provide perspective, but more than anything else we simply wish that management had been responsive, accommodating, and provided the unit with a bit more TLC.