We stayed here for six nights while visiting London.

The good: Helena is incredibly friendly and will go out of her way to provide a great experience. She left us water, milk, oranges and other snacks in the kitchen and changed her schedule so she could be there to provide an overview of everything when we arrived. The location is good-- short walk to Portobello st and not too far from the tube stations-- definitely one of the more affordable options for such a good neighborhood. The apartment is surprisingly bright for a basement apt and overall the apartment is well-equipped and charming.

The bad: As Helena warned us, there was construction going on during the week. Typically it doesn't start until 9, but the week we were there it woke us up at 8 three times (apparently they had a third party contractor in that week on a different schedule). Helena was always responsive when we texted her about this and did her best to go through the building management to shut it down, but it was an unfortunate alarm clock. Also, we were often out for the whole day and we found that on the days we weren't there to keep the windows open, things got a little damp and left our clothes smelling musty -- a smell that has endured through our return to NYC. Lastly, the bed is a full size- so pretty small for two people, and because it has wooden edges you can't comfortably hang off the edge, making it feel tight.

Overall, Helena was a wonderful host but we didn't love our experience at the apartment.