I am a former professional travel writer and still travel blog on the side as I did on this trip. I have been rated a top notch guest on Airbnb. It is unusual for me to complain on a review so I will give you both pros and cons so you can consider it all. It is a shame because all of this could have been avoided.
PRO
+This apartment is in a great location to get to the Holburn Tube and to walk to many places including Covent Garden.
+There are a few restaurants near it on the block.
+It was clean.
+Sheets and towels were provided plus shampoo and bath gel.
+It has a working hairdryer.
+It had a portable air conditioner and a fan to keep the room cooler.
+Bed was large and comfortable
+Plenty of closet space
+Full Kitchen
CON
-The photo on Airbnb was not updated to show the current sofa was different than pictured..
-When we arrived, there was no toilet paper, so we had to call for some to be delivered which came after we left, so rather inconvenient for us.
-We had no hot water in the kitchen or tub at the spigots. When we turned them on, nothing came out. Only cold worked. The shower had a wall mounted hot water heater that we did figure out how to turn on to take hot showers but with low pressure. We looked for some sort of other hot water heater switch to make the hot water spigot work but everything said "ON" already.
-There was no guest manual with operating instructions for those of us not experienced with UK equipment.
-There are no smoke detectors or fire extinguishers in unit and it is on the 9th floor. (Perhaps not required in UK??)
--BIGGEST COMPLAINT Construction and NO Communication.
We were awakened two mornings in a row very early with construction going on in the building that sounded as if it was on the other side of our wall. It was so loud we could not hear each other speak in the apartment. We contacted the rental office by phone and by Airbnb and were told they would look into it and then no one communicated with us anymore. I even sent a video with sound. I found In the lobby on the bulletin board was the August newsletter announcing construction going on in September. I called and messaged through Airbnb on multiple days in a row asking about compensation for those two days where the construction noise drove us out of the apartment and no one would reply. This unit should not have been rented out to guests on vacation knowing construction would be happening. We are unaccustomed to having an Airbnb rental host refuse to communicate. When I returned home, I had an email (not through Airbnb) from someone different in the rental office saying the construction noise was outside of their control. We understand things happen, but the construction was posted and announced to all the owners and should have been disclosed to Airbnb guests or they should have moved us or offered compensation. Instead they ignored us. We paid quite a bit of money to stay here and it disrupted our vacation, so for those reasons, I cannot recommend this apartment.