Unpleasant check in experience and very poor communication. We cancelled almost right after we checked in. Reasons are as follows.
1. 2pm has always been the communicated and agreed checkin time (officially shown on our checkin page) but host changed it to 3pm without telling us. So when we arrived at the flat the room was not cleaned, and we had to wait for over an hour for it to be cleaned. Thanks to the cleaning lady though, who’s really kind and nice. She was very stressed about this because she was told the checkin time was 3pm (again, host DID NOT TELL US). We never heard any explanation from the host why the checkin time was changed.
2. Shower head couldn’t be used.
3. The flat stunk with cigarette smells.
4. Lots of noises in the flat from neighbours, drilling and banging)
5. The flat number in the checkin instruction was wrong, so when we collected keys from the porter’s desk, the porter was confused.
We arrived in London very early that morning, because the host said we couldn’t drop off bags in the flat, we carried the bags around for 7 hours waiting for that 2pm to come so we could check in and rest before our important evening plans. So when all this happened we were desperate, stressed and disappointed.
The way the host wanted to solve this was also unacceptable. He offered a half refund of the cleaning fees (which would be like £25) and a 2-hour extension of the check out time. However, since at the very beginning, the check out time has always been 10am and we were told we couldn’t leave our heavy bags in the room so we have made other plans already. So this 2-hour later check out wouldn’t mean anything to us. It was also not about the cleaning anymore, the cleaning lady didn’t know about all this and she did a really good job cleaning the flat.
Good location, not far from Earl’s Court or Gloucester Road tube station. Spacious flat/studio with a balcony.
In general, bad experience, wouldn’t recommend, and we even start to doubt the liability of Airbnb (at least in London. I’ve used Airbnb many times around the world but only the services in London are very unimpressive), maybe next time in London we will book hotel at the first place without considering Airbnb.