Pros:
1. Can’t beat the location in town! Located extremely close to restaurants, shops, cafes, pubs, and next door to the Edinburgh Castle (which is walking distance).
2. The bed was comfortable and comfortably fit for two people.
3. The host responded quickly to all of my messages in preparation to our visit.
Cons:
1. We arrived 30 minutes early for our 4pm check in. The host informed me this was OK, although he hadn’t yet received confirmation that the cleaners finished cleaning the room.
We sat outside in the garden waiting for the cleaners to arrive. Two ladies went into the unit. From the garden, we could see them cleaning the space.
We could see they changed the sheets and did a quick wipe down & vacuum of the space. Unfortunately, there were many areas of this unit that could use a DEEP clean.
The cleanliness was less of an issue for my husband, but Really bothered me. Cleanliness not something I should have to ask for when renting a space. This should be standard practice.
The cleaners arrived approximately 20 before our check in time. This was not sufficient time to ensure the space was disinfected, especially given circumstances with the COVID-pandemic.
2. Cleanliness:
Specifically, areas that required more attention would be: the shower and walls.
Shower: there was black grime& mold on the floor edges of the shower. The same black grime was all over the hose of the shower head and on the shower head.
Size of Shower was also an issue:
The photos of the shower are deceiving. The shower is very small. Therefore, if you are not a petite person, this will not be an ideal showering experience for you.
I am a curvier woman and although I fit in the shower to rinse off, there was not sufficient space for me to comfortably wash my hair and body while enclosed in the shower. Therefore, I needed to exit the shower to lather, then re-enter the shower to rinse off.
There was no shelf to put your shampoo or body wash. Therefore you’d be required to place these items on the floor.
Due to the poor cleaning of the shower & small size, it was not relaxing to wash off after a day of exploring. 😩
Walls: high traffic areas such as the walls near light switches were very stained with dirt.
3. Lack of Basic Amenities:
A. We were given two towels (one of each of us) for our 4 day stay.
We were not given any face cloths.
There was no facial tissue (Kleenex) in the space.
And we were VERY close to running out of toilet paper.
C. Hot water did not seem to work in both sinks. I had reached out to the host and he did give suggestions. Unfortunately this did not fix the problem.
Thankfully the hot water worked excellent for the shower 🙏🏼.
4. Check out:
On our last day, we were getting our stuff packed up to check out at 11am. We received a knock on the door. It was the next family that was booked to check in that day at 4. They said they received permission to come drop off their bags.
It felt very odd to be interacting with the next guests.
Part of the allure to booking an AirBNB is that you don’t need to interact with anyone, especially the people coming in the next day.
Overall:
I would rate this space as a 7.5/10.
The cost of renting this space does not match what is offered.
We stayed in this unit for 4 nights. The location is what drew us to booking this space. Unfortunately due to the information I’ve provided, we would not rebook at this location. If you were someone who is not bothered by some of the points listed above, this would be a perfect space. The location being optimal for exploring the city by foot.