Pros:
- Location - it’s very central, easy to walk everywhere, lots of cafes and restaurants
- Size - very big rooms and it’s nice and sunny
- It warms up very quickly. We had to turn the radiators off several times
- the shower pressure is great
- the beds are very comfortable, which was surprising bc they don’t seem very good quality
Cons:
- there isn’t a comfortable chair in the flat. The dining chairs are uncomfortable, the seat cushions in the bucket chairs don’t stay put so you end up sliding forward all the time, and the futon doesn’t have arms to relax onto. You can’t just get comfortable and watch tv (which we wanted to do occasionally as we were there for 12 nights)
- some consideration of guest needs would be appreciated. There was only the bedding actually on the beds. We were there for 12 nights so we wanted to change our bedding and some extra sets had to be delivered, which was great and appreciated but the host initially tried to charge us for the extra set. When I objected bc we just wanted multiple sets available (which should have been available anyway considering how long we were staying) the host agreed and didn’t charge us. They did though try to use this as an example of their ‘goodwill’ in the toilet-drama (detailed in the next point), although again I would argue that we shouldn’t be charged or have to ask for extra bedlinen available so we can wash and change the beds ourselves (without trying to scramble to get it washed and dried in the same day. It’s really not that much to ask).
- the bathroom is ill equipped. There are only two hooks, one of which is taken up by the hand towel and the other you can use for your clean towel. There’s no where others than the floor to put your dirty or clean clothes as there’s no bench space. A shallow bench or extra hooks would be very useful.
- the toilet filled very slowly and didn’t flush properly when we were there. I alerted the landlord on the first day and they told me they would get a plumber out but a plumber didn’t arrive for a week and they needed to order a part so it didn’t end up getting fixed. Not ideal when you have more than one person staying there. I had to use the facilities at the pub across the road several times. When I chased it up and tried to phone the host bc the washing machine wasn’t working they didn’t answer and just sent a text message saying they were sick and that a plumber would be there in a few days. My dad ended up cleaning the filter on the washing machine bc my mum had wet clothes in there and we couldn’t wait. We received a £50 refund after I escalated the issues to Airbnb as the host got very defensive when I pursued the issue, they felt I needed to get some perspective bc the rate we paid per person was less than that of a hostel or something. I would argue that it doesn’t matter how cheap somewhere is (and it wasn’t cheap) you should have access to a functioning toilet and washing machine. I asked for a partial refund and was flat out refused. It was only intervention by Airbnb that we got the refund.
The accommodation is ok. It would have been more positive if the host hadn’t tried to gaslight me into thinking I was being unreasonable or insinuate that we weren’t paying enough to ensure we deserved to have the issues fixed. They used the old ‘no ones ever complained about this before’ and ‘for perspective, you’re paying as much per person as you would at a hostel’, and they told me that ‘it hadn’t negatively affected’ our stay. It did negatively affect our stay. And so did their attitude.