Let's start with the good: the halls smelled like vanilla. The flat itself (#7) was spacious and nice, especially considering the great location in the heart of Covent Garden. We appreciated being able to get early check in, though communication was difficult. They seem to only respond during 9-5 hours which is difficult when you are traveling or communicating from different time zones. Not something you'd experience at a hotel or owner-operated SRT. It didn't look like photos (though they tell you this in the listing) and the second bedroom was in a loft that was cute but very very hot.
We booked this place for one night in hopes of having a relaxing end to a 10-day trip with my mom (75) and daughter (3), to be able to enjoy London for the day and get a good night's rest before a long flight back to the U.S. the next morning. Unfortunately, that was not what we got.
The lighting throughout most of the flat is operated by touchscreen consoles spaced throughout the place. One of these was literally hanging off the wall from the wires. And here's the big problem: THEY DID NOT WORK. The "Turn All Off" option did nothing. We pressed the button. We held down the button. Nothing. A neighbor across the hall reported that hers worked fine so obviously #7 has a wiring problem. After tinkering for an hour, we gave up and were left with blazing, oppressive light on overnight in the living space and kitchen. The loft bedroom happens to look right into this space through a window that has no curtain, so one of us essentially slept with the lights blazing all night. When we called to report this, the response was that there was nothing they could do and that maintenance would come the morning. I asked if we could move to another apartment that had working lights so that we could actually sleep there, and the person on the other end said she couldn't help with this. She did seem empathetic, but couldn't help us. When we brought it up with the corporation, including sending videos and photos to document the faulty lights, they offered us a 20% discount on a future stay. You couldn't pay me to stay in a Stayo again, given their complete lack of understanding of what hospitality entails. Eventually they offered us a 15% discount so we still spent more than $500 to stay in a place where the LIGHTS DON'T WORK. Needless to say we didn't get much sleep and were frustrated and grumpy for the end of a trip (where we stayed in other air bnb's that were lovely and gracious).
Here are the other things we experienced:
1. The lift was broken while we were there! We specifically booked a place with a lift because we were traveling with an elderly person with mobility issues, a 3-year-old, and a ton of baggage. Not great. No offer from anyone to help with bags--again "someone will fix it tomorrow."
2. There was no soap in the dispensers.
2. The toilet seat was loose, which they called us about multiple times and they seemed very concerned with. Uh, fix your lights and elevator.
3. Before you check in they ask for a $500 deposit that is paid outside of air bnb and felt sketchy. I didn't get a receipt until I asked for it and they said "this chat is a record of the transaction." They did refund us after the stay, but look at others' experiences on trip advisor.
This room cost over $600 for a night. The place was clearly unfinished; Stayo is skating pretty close to being a scam.