Oak Lodge

I chose this property as a suitable base for attending my sons graduation ceremony at St. Albans Cathedral. It’s location was excellent for accessing the city centre shops, bars, restaurants and the Cathedral itself. We were never more than 8 minutes walk from any of the venues we had to attend. Communication with the owner/manager was ok. I messaged to find out about payment via the Expedia app and received a very quick response. I paid by card over the phone prior to travelling and the person was very friendly and pleasant. I was sent a receipt via email immediately. It would be helpful if the Expedia description could be changed from ‘to be paid at the property’ to ‘pay via phone prior to travel’ just for clarity. Access instructions were received on the morning of check in and were comprehensive. We gained access without issue. Unfortunately the apartment wasn’t as clean as we would have liked. We needed to use one of the sofas as a bed (as advertised). There was spare bedding stuffed in the wardrobe, but it wasn’t covered and we had to cobble together a bed for my son in the lounge. The sofa bed was filthy and the mattress covered in bits and detritus. Under the sofa we found an injection syringe for Nurofen and a medicine bottle together with some plastic toys and pills that had clearly been there for some time. There was no mattress protector provided. There were two pairs of used knickers in the main wardrobe!

This is an Airbnb, not a hotel or anything close. The building in the photo is not the right property. The photo used is actually another building on the same road. We received no check in details, I had to phone hotels.com who phoned the owner and then i got a text with check in details along with several threats of “fines” if the property was left untidy. Avery stressful check in with kids. The apt itself is quite nice apart from the fact that we found a pair of dirty underwear.

Disgusted, the owner cancelled us a few days before our visit, sent an email to do so which went straight in my junk email and didn’t get read, tried to get through on the phone and no answer. Reviews say this has happened several times. I would avoid this property.