Farnum and Christ Apartments in London
 

Hi

I am looking for an apartment to rent London for the week of April 30- May 6 of this year.

I have seen where Farnum and Christ have gotten good reviews here, but can't find anything specific on these two apartments.

Please give any comments, good and bad that you can think of.

http://www.farnum-christ.com/1bedroomsloanegardens.htm

http://www.farnum-christ.com/Ormonde%20Gate.htm

The Ormonde Gate apartment is a little cheaper. Lisa quoted 1000 pounds (sorry, don't know how to make the symbol on my computer) for Sloane Gardens, and 875 for Ormonde Gate.

Thank you,
Johanna

Ormonde Gate looks lovely for the price. It is just about directly across the Street from the Chelsea Hospital (not a "hospital" but a magnificent Wren bldg that is a retirement home for British military). A very upscale neighborhood - but a bit of a hike to the nearest tube station at Sloane Sq.

Sloane Gardens also looks wonderful. It is in the same general posh neighborhood, but is practically at the tube station.

Both flats are great - You'll just have to decide if the 10 minute longer walk to get to the tube is worth £125.

Tough one. Both look nice. I'm usually not too keen on ground floor apartments, but yet, this one seems to have a nicer "view" than the Ormande Gate one. In fact, although the Sloane Gardens one appears smaller, it just seems nicer somehow to me, and I'd certainly like the location more.

Don't have specific experience with these apartments, but I've rented with Farnum and Christ. For what it's worth I think I'd pick the Sloane Garden. Like Patrick mentions it just looks a little nicer/cozier. Also, having such quick access to the tube station would be very valuable to me.

Thanks for your replies.

They do both look nice, but I think I'm leaning towards the Sloane Gardens apartment because it's so close to the tube.

Patrick, I see from one of your old posts that you rent from them often, so I take it that your experiences with this company have been good?

I do have a question about the exchange rate. When I asked about the price for the SG apartment, Lisa quoted 1000GBP, and I said "so just under $2000". She said that it would be a little more because they quote their own exchange rate. I checked xe.com and they have 1000GBP at $1967. I guess I'm a little confused, how do I handle this? Or is it even a big deal? I will email her today and ask for an exact quote.

Johanna

Sorry, that should be 1000GBP is $1,976.

Johanna

Quick update,

I just got an email back from Lisa, and the quotes that she gave me are reasonable. I suppose I got a little nervous when she said they used their own exchange rate.

Johanna

Gracie -- I've only used them once (based on Patrick's recommendation) and they are really really excellent to work with. I regret I can't use them for my next trip (they just didn't have an apt that fit my needs/budget this time around). I'll be using London Guest Suites. It's always such a leap of faith to do something like this for the first time, but I think you'll be very very happy!

gracie, yes, I've used Farnum and Christ for years (always the same apartment which they jokingly call "Patrick's flat" now (the Floral Street one in Covent Garden). They are wonderful to deal with.

I used to be a little irritated that their exchange rate is kind of high --a couple percent above standard, but since you pay them direct in US dollars as they are in the US and they lose money paying owners, etc., it really isn't any worse than most other methods, including transfers or dealing with PayPal or someone else's rate if you had to pay in advance in pounds. It's just the way it is. Don't think of the exchange rate. Just look at what it's costing you in dollars.

Thanks Patrick,

That's how I am going to looking at it, and Lisa has been very nice over the phone, and prompt in returning emails. I think we will go with the Sloane Gardens apartment. I feel confident renting from them.

Thank you, too, laustic for replying. I'm glad you had a good experience with them, also.

Johanna

By the way, regarding that exchange rate with Farnum and Christ. I did laugh when I sort of protested about my deposit one year and saw that they were charging me a couple percent higher than "normal" exchange rate. But by the time I actually rented the apartment about 8 months later, the actual currency rate had risen by over 5 percent, so the deposit was actually cheaper than it would have been at the time of rental with NO exhange fee.

Hi Gracie - I clicked on your name but was unable to see if you rented this flat.

My sponsor said I cannot look for any more flats in London but I am hopeless ;-)

It looks like you might have gone to Italy instead... ?

Kind of confusing. I see too where gracie (johanna) went to Italy at that time, but said it was on FF tickets she got last fall. Was London a stopover? If not, I'm not sure why she was looking for a flat in London at the same time. She promised a trip report, but I haven't seen it -- only some posted pictures from Italy.

Gracie, are you out there?

Yes, I am confused (but alibet easily so on these boards) I know my plans change at rapid light speed at times - so I assumed she did not go... but then you are right - she said she got the ff tickets in the fall - and the flight in the photos says Atlanta to Milan :-)

No London.

Hi everybody

Well, I guess I should clear this up.

Things have been hectic since we got back from the Italy trip, and I am working on a trip report.

Here's what happened in a nutshell: October of last year I got FF tickets to Italy. Started getting everything planned-- cities I wanted to go to, hotels to stay in, and asked my sister if she wanted to go.

A few months later, she was home visiting, we were sitting around talking about the trip and she said, you know, if I really had my choice, I'd want to go back to London.

I told her let me see what I can do, I'll start doing some research, hence the apartment questions. Turned out I couldn't change my FF ticket to London,(nothing available for the amount of miles I had) and the reality of the exchange rate made us think twice.

So we decided to stick with the original Italy plans.

I can say that the people at Farnum and Christ were great. They were very prompt in answering my emails, and I would have been very comfortable renting from their company. In fact when I do get back to London, I will rent an apartment from them instead of staying in a hotel.

Okay, hope this cleared things up. Now if I could just finish that trip report....

Johanna