Starting with a couple of positives but our stay was a huge disappointment. Please read the entire review for the full picture. We are still shocked at how misaligned our experience was with the other reviews and how totally inappropriate the designation of Airbnb Plus is for this rental.
THE GOOD
LOCATION: The location was perfect for us for a wedding in Hackney. The building was charming on the exterior however everything else was a disappointment.
SIZE: The living-room was large, and the kitchen was good (although the electric stove needed some instructions and some basic things were missing like paper towels - and only one dish rag provided).
WASHER: The washer dryer were great for our longer stay.
THE BAD
GARDEN UNKEMPT: The garden looks spectacular in the photos, yet when we arrived it was covered in weeds waist-high and unusable. They did clean up the garden by the 4th or 5th day of our stay. The outdoor space was a main reason for picking this spot. The bench back there was still broken when we left.
POORLY MAINTAINED INTERIOR - BUGS, LEAKS, MICE: The photos are clearly from 5+ years ago given some of the water damage we saw throughout the 2 units. The maintenance of the Airbnb is severely lacking, water damage, moldy kettles, clogged shower drains, bug infestation in one room, a mouse in the kitchen and no windows had been cleaned in at least a year. 2 of the shower heads were broken and a 3rd completely corroded so water only came out of half the holes. The owner attempted to send repair parts for one shower head and send over the wrong part twice. It was never fixed during our stay.
CHEAP STAINED AND TORN BEDDING AND TOWELS: The bedding and towels were the cheapest items available, a majority of which had holes in them and were stained. We were given 1 towel per person, and when we asked for more, 1 more was dropped off over 24 hours later. Very odd additional bedding and towels weren’t within the unit.
NOT CHILD FRIENDLY: Our booking was for two adults, a toddler and an infant, this is NOT a suitable Airbnb for young children. It has a set of carpeted spiral stairs that are not adult friendly let alone child friends. My daughter slide down a couple steps during our stay. It is hard to tell in photos but the rooms are spread across many floors including a basement so to visit children in bedrooms and the common spaces requires a lot of up and down these stairs. The exercise is great. The stairs themselves are treacherous. The floors (especially the carpets) are also not clean enough for kids to be crawling or rolling around on.
BASEMENT MOLD: One of the bedrooms and bathrooms is in the basement and the basement smells strongly of mold. Likely partially due to the massive water damage in one corner by the washer dryer. We wanted to have our child sleep down there but the mold smell was so overwhelming, we had to have her upstairs on the sofa.
NOT GOOD FOR LONG STAYS: There is nowhere to unpack. In addition to the other issues, we lived out of our suitcases instead of being able to unpack. There are a couple drawers (total in both units) and a couple rolling racks.
As Airbnb super hosts, we understand the care and effort that should be put into each home. This was not an Airbnb plus experience or an experience with a true superhost based on our experience. This one felt like it had the opportunity to be perfect but we were deceived and disappointed by the lack of care and quality in what could have been a charming vicarage in a fun, beautiful part of London.