4/10 Poor
Rosanna U., Hong Kong
21 Muh., 2017
A cold stay in the apartment
The apartment is spacious, and well decorated in authentic style. Shopping is relatively easy, and kerbside parking in front of the apartment is convenient. The kitchen is modern and quite well equipped and when we needed other items the owner quickly arranged for their delivery. The WiFi is effective and there is a wide range of TV channels in different languages. There is a pleasant little courtyard at the back with a table and chairs, although we had to wipe them clean before they could be used. However, as presently equipped, it is not recommended as a winter let.
Being renovated from an old house, and measuring 200 sq metres, we did not expect central heating. However, there was only one old small heater in the apartment, barely able to keep one room warm at a time. The beautifully appointed dining room could not be heated by it at all as it had no electric socket. There was a fireplace in the sitting room but nothing to inform guests as to whether it was a working or decorative fireplace. Nor was any wood or instrument available, such as a fire guard, to indicate it was capable of being used. We therefore did not wish to risk using it.
We made several requests to the owner for an additional heater. She appeared to ignore our first one, then she claimed there was another heater. However, after two thorough searches, we could not find them. We were also puzzled why her assistant, who appears to live locally, did not come to the property and show us where it was. The owner then told us that if we had wanted a warm apartment, we could have booked one of her other more expensive air-conditioned properties advertised on the HomeAway website. We thought this a rather irrelevant statement as air conditioning is generally designed to keep a property cool in the heat of summer and not warm in the cold of winter.
When our scheduled stay was over, we sent a message to the owner informing her that we had vacated the property and left it in good order. She then replied still claiming there was another heater in the property and that she would allow us to stay an additional one or two nights for free, in view of the trouble this incident had caused us! We had, however, already left to catch our return flight.
It is intrinsically a nice apartment but we could not recommend it as a winter let unless the heating arrangements, and advice to guests as to what they are, were to be greatly improved.
Rosanna U.
Stayed 7 nights in Jan 2017