Starting with the good:
- The apartment is super cool, comfortable, and well-equipped. The photos are very accurate. You can really feel the owners' personalities shine through the pieces in the place. The outdoor space is amazing on a nice day. Nice views of the City skyline from the kitchen as well.
- The place was spotless on arrival. Comfy beds, everything you need in the kitchen, and lots of extra amenities in the bathrooms.
- Location is great. It's on a quiet street but is close to the center of the city, Tower Bridge, public transport, etc.
One thing we wish we had known:
- To check in, you have to go to a Key Nest location. The check-in instructions said it was a 5 minute walk, but it was actually 15-20 minutes, which is a huge difference when you're rolling suitcases and a stroller as we were.
Now the bad:
Like many air bnbs in London, this one is managed by a big property management company with horrendous customer service. Which is fine if nothing goes wrong. But something did go wrong.
On our first day, we retrieved the key from the Key Nest location, dragged our stuff to the apartment, and entered with no problem. Later that day, we left to explore for a couple of hours and when we returned, the key would not open the front door. We tried everything but it seemed the lock was just stuck.
My phone was inside but luckily I managed to log into my air bnb account on my husband's phone (not an easy feat, but won't go into details...) and found the property manager's phone number. We called and explained the situation, and they asked us to go to the Key Nest location to pick up the other set of keys. I was a bit annoyed because (a) a good property manager would offer to come bring the spare keys, not send us a mile away to pick them up ourselves, and (b) I was pretty sure the problem was the lock and not the key. But, it was a nice day out so we strolled back to the Key Nest place.
Unsurprisingly, the second key also didn't work. Just to be sure it wasn't user error, we re-watched the check-in instruction video and followed the steps exactly. The lock wouldn't budge. So I called back. The guy on the phone asked me to go back upstairs and try again. I was super annoyed by this point but did as he asked. When it again didn't work I asked him to please send someone or call a locksmith because we have tried everything you've asked and clearly the lock is malfunctioning. He told me I was being difficult and hung up on me.
I was furious by this point so my husband took over and called back. He explained that we were stuck outside with a small child, our stuff was locked inside, this situation was not our fault, and asked them to please send a locksmith. The property manager said he would call a handy man, not a locksmith, because he could only call vendors on the approved list. We said fine and waited. And waited.
We called back. They said sorry, none of the approved vendors were available. We said this is London, there are tons of 24/7 locksmiths they could call. They said they could only work with approved vendors and we'd have to wait.
Long story short, we kept begging and they kept saying to wait for HOURS. When it started to get dark we said we were just going to call a locksmith ourselves. Which we did. The property manager reluctantly agreed to send an email authorizing the locksmith to open the door because nobody from the property manager could come to the property.
Our locksmith finally came and we paid him. In total we were locked out for nearly 6 hours. It took many many more phone calls before we were reimbursed. And the property manager never even apologized for the inconvenience.
I hope the owners choose a new property manager because it is really an awesome place for visitors to stay. If nothing had gone wrong, and we hadn't had to deal with the property manager, our stay would have been 5-star across the board.