The flat is situated in a great location. It is spacious and overall offers a good experience. However, we encountered a number of issues highlighted below.
1. There were no blinds in the master bedroom side window. Considering the sunrise is around 5am, it was a huge discomfort. We were woken up by the sun at early morning hours and did not have a good nights sleep. We had to use pillows and blankets to cover the window.
2. Fridge was not cleaned properly before our arrival. It had some items left in it and smelled terrible, thus we couldn’t use it.
3. The WiFi was not working for the first few days of our stay and was patchy at times.
4. The shower was not cleaned to an enhanced cleaning standard (as highlighted in the Airbnb profile)there were some open shower gel sachets left in the shower from the previous uses.
5. The wooden floor in the master bedroom was sticky.
6. One morning, we were woken up by a loud noise of the fire alarm in the whole building which was quite unsettling.
7. Although Sky TV was advertised as part of the facilities in the flat, none of the Sky movies were accessible. When we asked the host about access to a pin which would allow us to watch the movies included in the Sky package (which were protected by the default system of parental control) we were told that he is “not trying to parent anyone” and can’t give it to us. We thought the comment was condescending, dismissive, inappropriate and sarcastic. Marc has no right to treat his customers/guests in this manner. His flat was not offered to us for free - we had paid the rent well in advance of our stay. Upon further enquiry, we were told this issue would be investigated and fixed. However, this was not the case and we never heard back regarding this issue. We ended up watching Netflix most times from our own private account.
8. Communication with host felt confrontational and accusatory. For example, on the last day of our stay, we were asked to check out by 10am, although when we booked it, the checkout time was 11am. I was then asked to prove that the checkout time was 11am. Although it was clearly stated on the Airbnb profile and our confirmation emails. During our conversation about it, the host changed it to 10am on his profile and tried to make us leave earlier. When I realised it and confronted him about the change, he admitted he changed it and “allowed” us to check out at 11am.
Overall, the flat was quite comfortable because of its size and had a nice area to relax in the evenings. However, because of the aforementioned issues, our stay due mainly to Marc's condescending attitude was disappointing.
Having stayed at different 5 star accommodations as well as other high quality Airbnb’s over the years including in Edinburgh, I would say this is by far the worst experience we had had with a host. Just to reiterate, this is the first time we have made negative comments about any accommodation. Very disappointing indeed!