I recently completed my Summer holiday and spent 2-weeks in London. I rented a flat through Booking.com called "Large Studio Flat in Kensington" on Longridge Road in the Hamilton Building and was surprised at how filthy the flat was when I arrived. I stayed one night and moved to a hotel the next day. I'm posting my review and photos here on Fodors, hoping to save someone the misery I had to face.

Based on the photos of the flat, I knew I was not renting a luxury apartment, if you view the listing you'll see it's pretty "humble" but appears to be clean. Boy was I surprised. I walked into the flat and immediately could smell cigarette smoke even though it's listed as a non-smoking property. As I looked closer at the condition of the flat, it became apparent that a proper cleaning has not happened in a very long time. Dirty dishes, dirty pots/pans, a dirty ashtray, bed linens that had two (small) blood stains and were worn thin, bedding smelled of tobacco, 3 Moka coffee pots that were all unusable (damaged) and dirty, no toilet paper and their "free" toiletries--leftover communal shampoo and soap from previous guests. I immediately contacted the property and asked if I could upgrade to some other property but they had nothing available. I told them how disappointed I was at how dirty the flat was and provided photos, but they insisted it was clean. They provided excuses like the dirty ashtray was an oversight by their cleaners, that there was a dishwasher in the unit (I guess they expected me to wash the dirty dishes) and that the bedding was OK. They offered to come and switch out the linens but it was too little too late--the place needed a thorough cleaning and they were not going to do that. Booking has been useless in trying to get a full or partial refund.
Please, if you are looking at renting a flat in the Kensington are in London, don't trust the photos and think twice about renting this "Large Studio Flat in Kensington" located on Longridge Road.
Here are some photos of what I found when I walked in the front door:

The dirty ashtray next to the bed.

Dirty cupboards

Dirty pots & pans

This is how I found these pans in the cupboard. Filthy.

Dirty, I couldn't even make myself a cup of coffee. They had 3 different Mokas, none of them were usable.

Dirty and the coffee basket is bent and could not be removed

The top half of one of the Mokas

Filthy Moka coffee pot that was missing the coffee basket

It's obvious this place hasn't been cleaned in years




Yuck


The communal left-over "Free" toiletries


Even their cleaning supplies were dirty


Broken furniture


Worn out and tired


Not sure what this is--perhaps the Minibar that they list as an amenity?

Missing curtains, but the curtain rods and hardware are still there

More dirt

Oh ick. How did they explain an ashtray in a non-smoking unit?

Did you send the photos to Booking.com as well?

In additon to sending your photos to Booking, I'd post your review on Booking as well, if you haven't already.

How can I send photos to Booking.com? Their review process does not provide a way to attach photos to reviews. I'll provide the URL for this thread in my review and was going to set up my own website where I have photos and notes on the place. If you have suggestions on where else I can post these photos or a cheap web hosting site, please let me know!

What a shame. Thank you for posting.

Have you already posted your review? Fairly sure their review process does allow you to post photos, but it has been a while since I checked. I do know that you cannot post the photos after you have already posted a review.

As far as sending them to booking, I'd see if there might be a general email. You can post photos on sharing sites such as Imugr, shutterfly. There are many others.

How can I send photos to Booking.com?

I'm not sure. I assume you complained via their Partner Dispute/Dispute Resolution Center? Did they respond? Perhaps ask them how to send them photos via this form. Or did you call? Their site says you can call 24 hours a day, but I can't find the phone number on their site!

Booking.com Customer Service Contacts

Booking.com is an online travel agency specializing in hotel accommodations.

How to reach a person at Booking.com

Main: +44-20-8612-8000
Customer service: +44 20 3320 2600 Toll-free: (888) 850-3958

Contacts listed here:

https://www.elliott.org/company-contacts/booking-com/

It does look really yucky, but it also just looks old and tired.
Unfortunately, this is the problem with renting apartments. It is vey much hit and miss.

Booking.com is good for hotels, but it seems to me that they do not check the apartments that they have allowed to list.

What a shame. I like to book flats through known agencies/individual owners -- I use Booking for hotels mostly.

The listing gets an 8.4 -rating - but only has 36 reviews. Some even mention it being very clean. Some of the photos look 'untidy' but not anything like your shots.

Oh, I'm sorry you had to experience that. The reviews are really too generous, so makes me wonder if Booking.com withholds some of their negative ratings. I don't see your review, yet, so perhaps still held up in moderation, or they really do "curate" their reviews. I book less and less with Booking.com--though I've never had any issues with them--and more often directly with the hotels as the rates seem often better or the same of late. THank you for sharing your experience.

You can upload photos on a booking.com review. A review there is going to help more people. There is a button to click on the review form to add the photos. It may be that posting a link to another site (like here) will not work, anyway.

I also looked at the listing. With booking.com you really need to peruse reviews carefully. There are a couple of reviews that would have made me look elsewhere, not to mention the pictures. That apartment is inexpensive for London, so probably the people who gave better reviews realize it’s a pretty good deal, and were willing to overlook the shabbiness of the place. What did the owner say when you told them it was not clean? Maybe they could have sent someone.. but too late now.

I have to say that we've had far better success renting apartments (self-catering) on AirBnB than on booking dot com. The reviews on the former site seem much more reliable. We don't rent anything that doesn't get exceptional reviews, even on AirBnB.

Many people don't use either site, relying instead on private lettings and word of mouth. We're not quite brave enough for that, but knowledgeable folks find great success.

Booking is a listing site, that's all. It is preposterous to expect them to check rooms in places on their site. Do you think they check the rooms in every hotel on their site? Makes as much sense. Some of those photos look kind of bad but I think you are exaggerating somewhat and complaining about everything rather than sticking to salient complaints. The smoking thing is valid and no working coffee pot. But worn and tired couch, no curtains and cleaning supplies left from other people are not.

Thanks everyone for your comments, I appreciate the affirmation that my expectation for a clean apartment was not unreasonable. I was having problems posting my review of the property (thus the delay) but Booking was able to sort the problem and my review (with photos!) is live. I've been communicating with Booking about the problems I encountered and they're referring me to the property management company, and I contacted them 30 minutes after I arrived with no resolution on a way forward. It's too bad they're not taking better care of this property--with a small investment, this could be a real money maker for them. I'll let you know if I hear from the property management company.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions.