We had an inconvenient start to tour stay as we had not been provided with the welcome pack through Stayz (this may well have been Stayz's fault and not the owner's). The apartment is clean and functional. However, it is starkly furnished. The dimmer switch on the light in the living room does not function properly which means there are two choices of lighting - bright white or a strobe effect. Facilities are generally good; however, washing machine powder and spare toilet paper would have been useful. It is odd that these were overlooked particularly since sweets and chocolate bars were provided. The main issue with this property is its location which is on a very busy roundabout. There is almost constant traffic noise including emergency vehicles with sirens throughout the night. We stayed during the recent heatwave when we had not choice but to leave the windows open at night as there are no fans or aircon in this property. The result was a series of sleepless nights.

While we had expected that this rental was out of the core, the major attractions were not easy to reach or within a short commute as advertised. For example, the ad said that the nearest tube station was “a few minutes walk away”, it was not. It was a regional rail station, which required us to walk for 8 minutes, including through an isolated ravine, take a regional train from 22-37 minutes, THEN reach a tube station. In all, the shortest commute to a Central London site was just shy of an hour and multiple types of transportation. Because we had to pay additional cost for the regional train for 4 of us twice a day, in addition to the regular public transit fare, the commute was quite costly in money and time. Some commutes were much longer. We also found difficulty in getting ride-share service out that far; many drivers refused to accept the ride. The communication with the host was not easy. We had not received communications from her until a few days before the rental, at our prompting, whereupon she informed us that a £200 damage deposit was required prior to the release of the key information. This is not advertised, and, while it was ultimately returned, it left us extremely concerned that we would be left without accommodation even up to 40 minutes before our check-in time. The accommodation itself was relatively clean, attractive, if not very comfortable, and we liked having two bathrooms. The basic amenities were insufficient and it was noisy.

Apartment is a good size. With modern kitchen and bathrooms. Pictures of the apartment are very accurate. Point to note is that the apartment is on the first floor with no lift, so a bit tricky if you have big, heavy luggage bags.