This place deserves 0 STARS
Terrible terrible experience. I don’t like leaving such a bad review, but this place was really awful, and I will be lodging a formal complaint with Airbnb. I lived in a room here for a whole month (and it cost me £680 which standard London rent cost per month) and before the end of the first week I was already counting down the days before I leave. This place is the furthest thing from a “hotel type” as advertised. And it very quickly became clear why the hosts don’t live in their own house and leave a housekeeper to deal with it all.
There were many issues with this place so I’ve summed them up below:
ANTS EVERYWHERE
The first a biggest issue is that the house is infested with ants. Whenever there was any slight spillage or minor residue stew or something like that on the kitchen counter so many little ants would rush it, probably 50-100. Very disgusting. There are smalls ants literally everywhere especially in the kitchen, you seem them crawling everywhere, on the wall, all over surfaces, on the stove, on bowls and cutlery in the cupboards, some dead ones crushed on the fridge door whenever you open it. I took photos which I unfortunately can’t include in this review. There are no bins anywhere in the house apart from a tiny bin by the kitchen sink which is often not even in the kitchen (probably being cleaned out because as you may have guessed the small bin attracts loads of ants). They keep all the other bins outside 24/7, because they know they have a horrible ant infestation and they must have decided that’s the best way to deal with it. It’s a great inconvenience having to rush back upstairs frequently to get my shoes on just to put something small in the bin in their garden. As I said the ants are everywhere not just the kitchen, I saw a few crawling on my laptop screen and other devices from time to time. Its no wonder that the owners do not live in the property, and I did not see them once the whole time I stayed there. The place is not at all comfortable and if they were renting and not using Airbnb they know they would not be able to get away with this. They have a housekeeper who lives in a room and cleans the place frequently. This cleaning gets rid of the ants for only about 12 hours or so, you see them all again the following day. I could hardly cook because of how disgusting it was with ants crawling everywhere, so I ended up spending a lot of money on takeaway, which made everything a lot more expensive in the long run. Every time I wanted to use a plate or bowl even if it was clean, I would have to rinse it or wash it because there was often an ant crawling on it. And I obviously couldn’t have any dry food in the house.
RUDE HOUSEKEEPER AND UNFAIR RULE THAT APPLIES TO THE GUESTS BUT NOT TO HER
The housekeeper mostly stays out of your way but most of my interactions with her were very negative. We are allowed to use the washing machine but I learnt the hard way that we aren’t allowed to use the clothes rack to dry our stuff using space in the kitchen or the hallway, even though the housekeeper is always drying stuff inside the house and usually leaves it right in the middle of the kitchen instead of putting it to the side so its not in anyone’s way. So I used the washing machine once and was drying my stuff in the house as I have seen her do so many times, she comes knocking on my door and tells me its not allowed so I have to take my stuff outside or put them in my room. I had no space at all in my room, my luggage took the little space so I took my stuff outside. But then later on it started raining so I brought them inside and had to leave them in a corner as out of the way as possible. I then had a nap but she comes knocking on my door and kept knocking till I woke up. This time shouting angrily at me saying its not allowed its not allowed why would I do that. I try explaining that it was raining and there is no space in my room and besides she dries stuff indoors as well but she just kept shouting at me so I had to take my stuff into my room damp. Its funny, they have a long list of rules passive aggressively posted on almost every door in the house but it said nothing about not being allowed to dry stuff indoors in communal areas, despite her frequently doing so. Very unfair how its okay when she does it but paying guests are not allowed to do so. Another time we were both in the kitchen and she asked me to put something outside in the garden for her and I explained I don’t have shoes on so will have to go get my shoes and she just said okay. I don’t work in the house so I thought that was a bit rude and unnecessary. At one point someone (I’m assuming her because I don’t see why any guests would move people’s stuff around) took my milk, yoghurt and other items out of the fridge and put them in the freezer. Was a very annoying and unnecessary thing to do.
The housekeeper was also often very loud in the day time. She would have long and loud phone calls in the kitchen that could be hear from any part of the house. Was antisocial and very annoying, especially for working from home, which I was doing.
FALSE ADVERTISING
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