Unfortunately, my stay in Claudia’s apartment was a big disappointment.

I planned to stay with Claudia for two weeks between moving houses in London. The previous reviews were mostly positive – apart from one of the comments about the bending bed.

When I moved in, there were constant problems with warm water. Apparently in the winter, you need to switch the heating on first in order to warm the water in the house. According to Claudia it takes approximately 10 min, which wasn’t always the case. On a few occasions, I waited much longer and water become only lukewarm or got colder when I was already in the shower. This might be related to the usage in the building, not sure…. it is not a new-build place. Not ideal when you’re trying to get ready for work in the morning!

When I raised my concerns to the host, she suggested to stop complaining as I am the only one and that I should start enjoying my stay in London instead. She was adamant there is always a hot water, which definitely wasn’t the case. Majority of the 6 previous guests did not stay there during the winter time, so perhaps they did not have the same problem.

There were more issues - indeed the bed is worn out to the point of feeling the metal tubes underneath it and I smelled cigarettes twice in the house. It was supposed to be a non-smoking place…

I was also not aware that the lock to the bathroom was broke, so one time, I walked in on the host. She didn’t make any effort to fix it. If it happened again, either her or her friend could have easily walked in on me as well and I did not feel comfortable with her approach again.

I found Claudia to be defensive and uncooperative and the whole experience was very stressful. I’ve had great stays with other families in Airbnb in the past, but here, I had no choice but to move out earlier than planned.
Once after all is said and done, Claudia seemed to forgot that when she sells her room on the platform, she needs to have some semblance of professionalism and consideration throughout the stay not only in the beginning for few days. Guests are paying customers spending their hard-earned money not friends crushing on a coach for a night.