I will try and be as honest as I can about the experience. I booked to stay (for family travelling over to visit - 2 adults and 3 kids) at a property a month and a half before the required date. The property advertised was well located (a few mins walk to shops, rail station and buses and within walking distance of family). In preparation for my family coming in I had pre-booked a taxi to the property a few days before. I also communicated with the owner (Hyacinth) a few day before to confirm the check-in plans and he told me that he would need 60 mins notice before arrival and that someone will be at the property to assist with checking in and handing over the keys. So everything was in order at that point.
On the day my family arrived at the airport (after travelling for almost 15 hrs and very exhausted), I called Hyacinth as he had requested, to let him know that my family had arrived and were about the leave the airport to head to the property. To my surprise, he told me that the property was no longer available (apparently there was some issue with the house) and that he will be sending me an address to another property in the same area. I was so shocked and confused and honestly did not know what to do at the time given my family where in the airport in a taxi which was about to leave!! Anyway, I asked him to send me the link to the property so I could have a look at it on Air bnb, but the property was not even listed there. In my desperation, I sent the address to the taxi company and told them to start heading to the 'new' property while I tried to figure out where it was and if it was suitable. Eventually Hyacinth sent me some pictures of the property but to be honest at that point I didn't really have any choice as I just wanted to make sure that my family had somewhere to stay for the next 2 weeks. I had a few calls with Hyacinth where I vented my frustration (as you can imagine) and he infuriatingly kept saying to me that he did not understand what I was upset about!
Anyway, my family got to the 'new' property where there was some work ongoing in the kitchen (tiling and some other stuff - there were work people still there) and as such it was very dusty. The new property was not as well situated as the one we selected, further away from the shops , bus and train links and it was right to a train line (noisy). To be fair, the amenities within the property were generally good and it looks like this was a property that would have been ready for full habitation in a few weeks but was not quite there yet. In the end my family ended up staying there for the 2 weeks because we did not really have any alternative - if we did, we would have moved them. But I have to say it was quite a stressful experience particularly for a family with kids who had been travelling for hours. If I had to say one positive thing about the experience, it was that Hyacinth always picked up his phone to discuss any issues (and there were a few - e.g. hot water running out in the house) . That said, I personally will not be using any property hosted by him in the future due to the lack of upfront transparency and the unrepentant attitude. I will leave others to make their own decision.