The flat itself: Five Stars
Service from the management company and resolution of issues: 0 stars if we could
We stayed 12 nights.
Gavin's flat is nothing short of stunning. It has been tastefully decorated and you can just tell the love and care that has gone into it. The location is great, the kitchen is extremely well equipped, the beds are comfortable, and you can tell Gavin has taken great care in creating the house manual and just genuinely wants to share his beautiful space with others. If it hadn't been for the issues we had to deal with, and I'm sure under normal circumstances, we would have given it 5 stars and I would be warmly recommending it to anyone.
This being said, our stay ended up being very stressful and sometimes infuriating, largely due to the appalling service and communication of the host's management company (Houst), which is such a shame.
In a nutshell, our issues were very similar to the experience of another review in November:
- despite messages from the management company explaining a cleaner was "leaving the premises" shortly before our arrival, the flat was covered in dust and the front door entrance nearly clogged up with weeks' worth of junk mail. You could tell the flat had been professionally cleaned at some stage, weeks ago, and it was definitely not "filthy", but covered in dust, and we did not appreciate the song and dance about a cleaner.
- ceiling leak in the third bedroom: the moment we arrived, we noticed an active leak as has been described in a previous review. The rest of our stay was spent trying to get the management company to follow up on this.
- communication: I tried time and time again to have a conversation with Houst about a partial refund of some kind as we had intended on using a third bedroom and had to make do with two instead. I also wanted to discuss the issue surrounding the dust and the pretense of a cleaner. After days of back and forth I didn't get anywhere. I could never get straight answers, and it is my understanding after hearing from the host directly that they were not forwarding our concerns to him as we had requested. After trying again and again to resolve this amicably and asking to talk, and being faced with silence, we ended up having to seek compensation twice through the Resolution Centre. This is the first time we have ever had to do this, and hats off to Airbnb for the service they provided after stepping in.
I just want to make it clear we would stay again **in a heartbeat** if we knew Gavin was in charge and the leak issues had been sorted. We would wholeheartedly encourage other travelers to stay as well, once they can confirm they are not dealing with the same management company as we did.