Correcting the factual inaccuracies in ad
Review Submitted: October 13, 2008
Date of Stay: June 2008
The apartment was clean, comfortable and the interior of the building felt safe. There were extras such as fans in the bedrooms and pamphlets for tours. Unfortunately for us, many of the advertised features of this property turned out to be absent or misrepresented. Some were small inconveniences, others cost us many hours of vacation and sleep. First is the claim that the neighborhood is quiet. It may have been quiet once, but it is far from quiet now with a major construction project on one side of the building and a major utility project on the other side. At night windows have to be closed to block out the nightclub patrons. The advertised kitchen washer/dryer does not exist. (The owner has since added a disclaimer to this effect, but it is buried in the bedroom section and the ad still clearly claims the washer and dryer are in the kitchen.) Instead of just throwing in a load of laundry and leaving, we were forced to spend far too many hours washing clothes in the small building laundry. The fully equipped kitchen turned out to lack any cooking pans larger than a quart so our plans of cooking in had to be substantially modified. Our family runs two businesses and has two teenagers, so the advertised WIFI was a key rental requirement for us. Unfortunately, the manager felt it was optional so he moved it to another apartment where we could not connect. Bizarrely he insisted that this and the lack of a kitchen washer/dryer were acceptable because they do not charge a separate fee for the items and so do not have to provide them. We take a more literal view of advertised features. The dinning for six would require two people per chair. The portion of the ad saying the charges are all inclusive fails to mention a $10 per day charge if you use a credit card. The general area was a step down from many neighborhoods with the building garbage piled on the sidewalk outside the main entrance and the tattoo parlor fitting in well across the street. The professional management struck us as unprofessional and profoundly unhelpful. Despite many phone calls the manager refused to restore the WIFI. We also were not used to management entering without notice, removing items and allowing staff to stay in the apartment the first night we paid for prior to our AM check in. The owner was asked to correct the factual inaccuracies in the ad but has not done so, so it is left to us. We especially disagree with the claim that the owner has never had a dispute with a renter!
Owner's Response: AGENT: Ive managed this property 10yrs&can categorically state advertised features are very accurate! Several factors totally out of Agent&Landlord’s control did affect guests stay&what started as frustration with washer/dryer location was compounded by an unfortunate series of events. This has led to some factually incorrect&nasty comments being posted, not the full picture, which may mislead prospective renters. As this affects the landlord, I owe it to them to put this right&cover ALL points raised, but only have 2500 chars here. SUMMARY: External work caused major inconvenience/disruption to water&broadband services. I was on annual leave&never met these guests (a cover Agent did the check-in who may not have been as helpful as me), but I spent most of my holiday dealing with the problems. This included: Thames Water company/emergency plumbers - I made 26 phonecalls &attended 7 on-site visits; Virgin Broadband engineers – I made17 phonecalls in 1 week (often waiting 45+ minutes for a human being) & attended 3 on-site visits (so had to enter flat!) Understandably frustrated, guests made an important call to me while I was off duty driving to lunch in the country. Seeing the caller ID&wanting to keep everyone happy, I took the call. Due to very poor cell phone reception, neither side could hear the other. I offered to call back later but guests stated theyd be out. My attempts to reply/offer advice were misunderstood, misheard&taken as rudeness, hence Ive been totally misquoted&the review is littered with incorrect statements: QUIET: we do NOT actually claim the neighbourhood is quiet. Under “How noisy are the apartments” is customer feedback/examples of what they say, so readers can make their own judgement. WASHER/DRYER: Guest told several times Holiday-rentals website ONLY offers us a tickbox feature under subheading “Kitchen” to show appliances. If we don’t tick this, anyone searching for a property with a Washer/Dryer wouldnt see us in the results! We supply FREE 24hr access to 4 washing machines + 4 dryers. This is BETTER than advertised + better than 1 combi-machine. I took immediate action on Sun 22/06/08 +added lines in 2 places to website - Guest describes my lines as “buried” + told me I was lying about tick boxes! I gave them print-outs of HolidayRentals blank forms showing tickboxes + copy of new website wording for their comments, inviting their suggestions- they never replied. Comments on PANS, SEATING, CARD CHARGES+AREA all not true
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Helpful votes: 10/11