I will not panic! Leave tonight apartment not available!!
 

I'm trying not to be stressed......woke this morning very excited as we leave tonight and I have received an email over night to say the 'boiler' has broken in our apartment in London and they are moving us to another. Now I've googlemapped the new one and it looks lovely BUT we searched and paid for a two bedroom and two bathroom place for 3 adults. Now we only have one bathroom! GRRRRR

They have promised to try and move us when its fixed, I just feel a bit uneasy......I hope we're not being ripped off? Paid in full months ago hope I wasn't being gullible.

And of course being a 'fodor devotee' I've researched all the places, coffee shops pubs etc around the first apartment. But I guess I now know how I'm going to fill in today ;-)

I had to vent...thanks.

hi dreamer!

oh, no...I know how much time and effort you will have invested in finding the perfect apartment and poof - there it is gone.

A positive spin - you should get to use the original apartment once the boiler's fixed...you will get to know two areas of London, not one...oh, dear,that's it.

best of luck ,and let us know how you get on!

A-D,

As long as YOU are not sick or broken, it's peanuts.

(I say this having ended up in hospitals abroad.)

You wanted an adventure. Don't start complaining now! ;-)

The pubs, cafs, supermarkets you find on your own will surpass anything pre-digested for you.

They all speak English there. Wait 'til you get to Italy!

You may well like the new apartment better. In nay case you will be on your trip. enjoy.

Good morning aussiedreamer - what a surprise or shock - hope it turns out to be a pleasant and happy surprise!
Looks like you will have an adventure and not be feeling that you must use a certain coffee shop or grocer because you researched it.

I found this site yesterday when looking at a location for an apartment in London - it is very basic - and I know nothing about its origins or the like - but at least it might be a start for a new area.

http://www.londontown.com/LondonStreets

Happy travels - enjoy your last day at home - I hope the weather is beautiful wherever you are in Aus. It is gorgeous here in Adelaide this morning, well only 4C but going to be 16C and clear and sunny.

Safe journey and happy travelling.

thanks one and all. And we already know the area we are moving to and its nice and I wont let it spoil the adventure I just wish it didn't have to be the 'first' stop!!! :-)

hey love_travel_aus, thanks for the kind words. In Brisbane and its cool and bleek.

I know you'll have a nice trip,,,,however we had the "broken boiler' line given us several years ago at a mid priced hotel in London. It was only for 3 nights,, but they moved us to another hotel (within their chain), but location was worse and the hotel a little worse. In hindsight I wish we would have just parked ourselves in the lobby ...until "our" room became "available". (reservation had been made a couple of months in advance, close to a bus/underground stop because of a very bad knee.)
We had come from Italy that day, long day, up early, and was the very day the Iraq war broke out. Am sure they got more money from someone else,,,,but looking back it seemed to be kind of a "dirty trick". In all fairness,, the boiler "could" have gone out in both of our situations....but when I read "broken boiler" it caught my attention.

I sincerely hope the whole problem is at least legitimate. At any rate, every single time something like that has happened to us, something really great came out of it. We have never had a bad or unsettling experience that did not turn into something better than the original plan. I bet the same will happen to you.

ahhh thanks Sassafrass, thats what I needed to hear. Dh isn't too disappointed we are now even closer to his beloved 'Lords Cricket Ground'.

Good luck. Sounds like there's really nothing you can do at this point, since everything's been paid already. You just gotta roll with this and hope for the best! We'll keep our fingers crossed on your behalf (and between all the Europe forum Fodor's posters that's a LOT of fingers!)

LOL thanks suze good thinking. I feel much better about it than I did this morning.........

Bags are by the door the roast is on, no we just have to wait 'till the car comes at midnight!! (thank goodness the MasterChef grandfinal is on tonight :-) )

Sorry but they've gone out of their way to find a last minute replacement and you're complaining about 1 bathroom for 3 adults? Man, that's petty.

It might be worth seeing if you can get a discount since you're getting something lower spec than you paid for.

We had the same thing happen to us in London and I thought at the time it was very fishy. I wonder if it's the same company? I had booked and paid months in advance, after doing extensive research, just like you. About a week before we were to arrive we got an email about a 'gas problem'. I remember thinking if it was really a gas problem it would be fixed immediately, and wondered if someone else had got our apartment. In the email they offered us a different place which we accepted because I felt we had no choice. I hate to say this, but it was a bit of a disaster with a few things going wrong and within 24 hours and a few phone calls we moved again, to a much better place in a different area of London. The place we ended up in for the rest of the week would have been much more expensive than the place I booked. This was right on Christmas so was fairly stressful.

I really hope the apartment you've been offered turns out great but it might be a good idea to say how unhappy you are and ask for a discount. After all, you are not getting what you paid for.

Kay

I've heard brokers in the apartment rental business say that "plumbing problems" and such is usually what clients are told when the owner of the apartment changes their mind about renting it for a holiday period, and won't budge even though they know it has been booked in advance.

Yep all of which has crossed my mind. I'm thinking if the boiler isn't 'fixed' in the first half of the week I may just 'drop by' and knock on the door! Be interesting to see if it had been double booked? I'm an hour and a half from leaving, so "cay sera sera" fingers and toes crossed all will work out ok?

>>I'm thinking if the boiler isn't 'fixed' in the first half of the week I may just 'drop by' and knock on the door!<<

Could be interesting. Though it wouldn't be easy to sue for breach of contract at a distance, if they have pulled a fast one, the prospect of some very bad publicity might get you some sort of compensation.

If nothing else you should review this apartment and agency on www.slowtrav.com and report what happened. Ditto everybody else who had a similar experience.

That said, there's lots of old housing stock in London and I'm sure plumbing/boiler/gas problems do happen quite regularly. They were painting a place we stayed at on Queen's Gate. The painting had been scheduled for earlier and got delayed. The agency gave us a considerable discount on the rate.

Our last trip started with a bad flight, lost luggage, room problems, and a broken toe. We went on to have the trip of a lifetime. Try to roll with the changes because changes always come. Enjoy your trip!