I’d seen in previous reviews that this apartment might need a bit of updating, but the location was great so I decided to give it a go. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the price charged was not up to the quality suggested.
Yes, this is a large, top-floor flat in a great location in central Edinburgh, but many of the items on the listing were absent or did not work.
On arrival we realised that we couldn’t use the “Sky TV and Broadband”. There was no obvious Wifi network, and there was no signal to the sky box.
The host, Cyrus, first stated that Wifi was not mentioned on the listing, and said he could fix the Sky Box, but it would just have the “free channels”.
We sent him a screenshot of the listing showing Sky TV and Broadband.
Cyrus then apologised and offered £100 for the error, and suggested that we used our phones for internet. We accepted that, however broadband is broadband, and if it’s listed it should be there. Some people need it, and mobile internet is often not reliable enough for work purposes.
Sky TV doesn’t usually mean just Freesat, so we declined his offer to come and reactivate the free channels.
The hot tub listed on the apartment (now seemingly removed from the listing) had a loose intake cover, which we only noticed when our young children were in it on our last night. This would have been dangerous, as the intake cover in a hot tub or jacuzzi stops anything being sucked into the pump.
We told Cyrus, and he said the jets were disabled anyway, and there was no danger. This was untrue, as we used them, but also if the jets were disabled then the hot tub becomes a bath anyway and shouldn’t be listed as a hot tub.
There was an “indoor fireplace” listed. It was there, but it had a yellow “dangerous – do not use” label attached by a gas engineer, dated 2017.
“Apple TV and Netflix” was also on the listing. We didn’t see an Apple TV anywhere, but it wouldn’t have worked without Wifi anyway.
We also found that some areas in the apartment were quite dirty. The sofa was very stained, dust flew up when anyone sat on it, and our children had black feet after walking around on the carpets. I should say that other areas were clean, the kitchen and bathrooms were fine, and the bedding seemed good.
We had some trouble with shutters in one room letting quite a lot of light in, but Cyrus has since assured me they are fine. Also, there was a large party on Saturday night which I pointed out to Cyrus in case it re-occurs while another guest is saying, but he seemed to think I was blaming him for it. I wasn’t.
After I tallied up the list of things that were on the listing but not actually usable, I decided to ask for a 50% refund as a starting point to negotiating a further discount, as I’m pretty sure that this warrants mis selling. Cyrus sent the initially agreed £100 for the missing Sky and broadband, but refused to entertain any further discounts.
We reported the missing amenities to Airbnb, but they informed us that their terms state all disputes of this kind must be raised within 24 hours of check-in. Most of these issues were discovered over the duration of our stay, right up to the check-out morning.
Cyrus did not contest that listed amenities were missing, not working or disabled, but he did not accept that some aspects of the apartment had not been cleaned very well. He provided a receipt to show that cleaners had been at the apartment before we arrived, which is fine, and cleaning was evident, but that doesn’t change the fact that the sofa in particular was dirty and dusty.
So in summary, yes, a big top floor apartment in an amazing area, but I can’t agree that this is a “Luxury 4 bed apartment” worthy of the relatively high cost when it promised quite a bit more than it delivered.
Here is a list of missing amenities:
50" TV with surround sound (no signal to the tv on arrival)
Sky TV and Broadband (no Sky or broadband)
Wifi (no wifi)
Apple TV with Netflix (no good without wifi, didn't see it anywhere)
Playstation with range of games (didn't see this anywhere)
Hot tub (supposedly disabled, but functional and not safe with intake cover missing)
Indoor fireplace (disabled, sign says "Dangerous")