Stay Reviews 42

Pity I can’t leave zero stars. They cancelled on us 1 week before with no explanation and didn’t respond to any messages. Now it takes 15 days to get our money back. Totally unacceptable and unbelievably unprofessional. The most annoying thing is I can’t leave a bad review on Air B&B because we didn’t actually stay. I am beyond furious 😡

I booked a 3 night stay at 160 colne road brierfield. The room i booked was atrocious the combination lock on the door was not working so spent a very insecure evening on a mattress where i felt every spring! I left the following morning to find some alternative accommodation as im working away. Which obviously led to more upheaval and costs. I informed host, ravestays and ddr of my disgust and was told i would get a refund. £70 for the 3 night stay £100 damage deposit, all i recieved refund wise was £18! Please please avoid!! My main issue was security how could anyone put a guest in an insecure accommodation? Disgusted disappointed even raging!!!

SCAMMERS, AVOID. Used booking.com to arrange a 3 night stay. Had not receive any check in information on the day we were due to arrive. Messaged the property to tell them we were arriving in 30 mins (after the agreed check in time) only to be told very bluntly and without apology that they had to cancel the booking as there was no hot water. They would not answer the phone and stopped replying to messages leaving us with no where to stay having driven 5 hours. Can only assume that they are scammers based on the horrendous experience and complete disregard for any level of customer service. Have reported the incident.

I booked an accomodation via Booking.com, but avstays required £450 deposit from an outside platform. They promised giving back my deposit within 15 days. I was waiting more than 15 days, nothing happened.

I wrote them, they somehow "forgot about" to give it back to me, but promised it will be on my account in the next 5 days. Of course it wasn't. I was chasing them and my own money for long weeks, they responds were very, very rude!!! They asked me to call my bank, because they already sent the money back.....This scam company caused me a very stressful period!! I asked help from Booking.com and another month later finally Booking sent my money back. After that they still advertises properties by avstays.

I don't wish this experience for anyone!

We are currently staying in Croydon through AV. We have been there continously for 3 months plus and have found the accommodation very satisfactory for our needs. The location is excellent for our commute for business.
We will be booking further dates.

Great stay no issues

this is a scam because I paid a £460 refundable deposit to the host, as required in the Airbnb listing rules, and the host has
failed to return the money after the agreed timeframe (15 working days). It has now been over 35 calendar days and 25 working
days. Despite multiple follow-ups and repeated assurances that the money would be returned, nothing has been received. The host
is now unresponsive and has provided no proof of refund. Airbnb has confirmed that the deposit was collected outside their platform
and stated they cannot enforce the refund, leaving me with no way to recover the money except through my bank. This behaviour
matches typical signs of a purchase scam.

Accommodation was good but the hosts are not very cooperative when it comes to returning the deposit. They stopped responding to me when I chased them up and when I got Air BnB involved they claimed they had sent the money but wouldn’t provide evidence of this. Looks like a few others have had this experience in other reviews below. I ended up having to get PayPal involved to do a chargeback. Not a nice experience to feel that you’re being scammed out of a deposit.

I paid the security deposit a couple months before the trip, so when I didn't get an email about any codes by my check in time I emailed the host and they asked if I paid the deposit, very irritating that I had to tell them, nothing on the email telling me I had to respond that I paid it. I got the codes to get into the lock box. After I got to the property there were 2 lock boxes and the instructions I got were for the wrong lock box, they even had an video showing which lockbox it was. The code worked on the other box and one of the keys was broken so we couldn't get it. After an hour of emailing the host which took him up to 20 minutes to respond he sent a new key over. So after getting to the property it took 1.5 hours to get the key, after we got the key the door still wouldn't unlock, it was very stiff and since there was already a broken key I didn't want to break another one. I told the host we couldn't get in and I wanted a refund. We got our refund within 5 days. But it took over a month to get our security deposit back. I gave them the PayPal information and they told me they tried to refund me with a bank transfer, made me jump through a bunch of hoops. They still didn't respond when I initiated a refund through PayPal. Finally got the refund 6 weeks later, almost like they intentionally made it difficult so maybe I would forget the $500+ security deposit.

Shame its not 0 stars as that's what it deserves.
An overall appalling service from this company. Totaly unprofessional and the accommodation we booked, 51 Rutland Street, St Helens, Merseyside was filthy and extremely run-down.
The property was a total contrast to the prestine photos posted on their advertisements, and the writen description about AV Stays as a company is an even bigger joke, as they don't care about their customers comfort at all.
I only wish I had read reviews before booking with them as it seems they have many unhappy guests.

We had to buy all new bedding to be able to sleep, as on arrival we found all linen was stained with hairs and bits of god knows what in them, infact we booked into a hotel on the first night as we couldnt face sleeping in them like that, after travelling almost 24hrs we couldn't deal with it that night.
They sent a cleaner back the next day but it still looked dirty and the linen looked just as dirty, hence we bought new.

The oven had old burnt food left in it, cobwebs so thick in places, it was obvious no one had cleaned to any standard in a very long time, the kitchen cupboards still had someone's food in them, broken units and a filthy fridge.
Cigarette burns in bedroom and sofa cushions, the whole property is so poorly maintained it needs a complete refurbishment.
What should have been clean white bathroom blinds as pictured, are infact so dirty they are grey.
We even had a beer bottle top and piece of old pizza left under the sofa, in full view so how the cleaner missed it i have no idea and to top it off a black bin bag full of someone's clothes just left in the property.
The garden was a mess, nothing like pictured with part of a fallen roof perched ontop of the washing line, so dangerous as it was head height as you came out the back door.

The correspondence from this company was unsatisfactory, they didn't care and were very rude, even stating in an email, the money we paid is reflected in the condition of the property, and it was just a cleaning issue, well it shouldn't have been a cleaning issue AV Stays, your cleaners obviously dont clean, as this property was a disgrace.
AVOID at all costs, put your money in a company who care about their customers. AV Stays don't care!

I would have given zero given the apartment we found and the treatment we received by AVStays. We have rented a place called East Croydon Home Contractors. It was supposed to be a stay for up to 6 people. When we arrived there the two sofa beds were broken, so we did not have a place to stay for our fifth companion. Second the apartment was in an indecent shape, everything was broken, bathroom wc, bassin, floor, from the pot on the table to very rest of the house was falling apart. There was no toilet paper in the room nor covers for the sofa bed we were supposed to use. We called AvStays and TravelStatyon with whom we had a contract immediately. Only TravelStatyon answered at first telling me to send evidences, which we did, and that they would have called back asap. From 16h to 18h30 we did not hear anybody nor we could reach them both, a voicemail was put in place. Finally I called Hotels.com where I booked as we did not know where to stay for the night, we could not stay there without the fifth bed and in those conditions, and after showing evidences, telling me they also could not reach AvStays and TravelStatyon, Hotels.com reimbursed the room fee. I kept on trying to reach AvStays as we also had to be reimbursed the security deposit and finally someone answered at 18h30 telling me to send all evidences. When I did they started to make claims and treat me like I was the liar of the situation when I sent and kept on sending all the evidences! I assume that this is really their normal way of doing since they never intend to give back the security deposit, pretending that I destroyed the apartment in less than 10 minutes when I started to call them! If I really wanted to have "fun" and destroy things I would not do it during my hols where I had plans for the evening and had to bother to find another accomodation as suggested by Hotels.com! The company even said that I did not call them. I showed them the call records where it showed that I was the one calling 100 times and they never did and they kept saying that I was ignoring their calls. Now all is in the hands of TravelStatyon as AVStays refuses to give the deposit back, I have so much evidence to back up what I am saying that the facts are indeniable. Unless you want to risk your deposit, be treated in inimaginable ways and stay in a indecent place (they claim it is "modest" but reality is it is shocking awful, I do not recommend AVstays nor their customer service (can we call it such?!).

I will avoid you all the tales of the state of the house and how we were first second guessed, then ignored and later insulted by the ‘customer service’ during our stay.
Focusing instead on the fact that it is 5 weeks since we checked out and, despite 3 reminders in the past 10 days, I am still waiting for the refund of the deposit. Not one single reply from their end, so asking now for help to the travel company I used to book a holiday for which my only lasting memory is how badly we were treated during, and completely ignored after. A real pity, because the location of the house, the decoration and the amenities were really good. Only thing AV Stays had to do was managing their business responsibly, but looks like this is too much to ask.

What a horrible company to work with. Are not concerned with the safety of customers. Even if advised by a gas engineer they go against advice. The customer advised me the boiler hasn’t worked for months and they done nothing. Customer was extremely unhappy with there service. Wouldn’t stay with this company if it was the last company on earth.

Be careful of this outfit , didn’t pay security deposit to my account until credit card company intervened

Our stay in London in December 2024 had a bad aftertaste because of rental company AV Stays:

​We had to ask for the rental contract several times. The conditions stated that you would receive the rental contract no later than one week before your actual stay. However, we only received the rental contract one day before departure.
​
Because the conditions stated that you had to sign the rental contract before you would receive the login code, we only received the login code at 2 am. We had asked for this much earlier, but only received a response very late.

​The deposit (~€300) should be refunded within two weeks after the stay. After more than a month we still have not received our deposit back. We had to sort it out ourselves, e. g. we had to make several phone calls.

​Twice, cleaners come to our apartment unannounced, to take things from the pantry that is apparently located in the hallway of our apartment. And this while we were simply present in the apartment. And they didn't even speak English, but Spanish. Of course we don't speak Spanish, so communication with these people was impossible. We were afraid all the time that these people could just walk into our apartment. The first time they walked in and out for one hour, at 7 pm in the evening.

The text exchange with M. is difficult and she has an unwelcoming tone when asking questions about the apartment. She just stops sending messages from her side even though our problem is not solved. For example, we asked for facilities to be able to wash dishes by hand and we raised the "cleaner problem". They simply ignored us on both of these issues.

When we got home, we once again submitted this complaint to AV Stays by email and asked for compensation. We received a very short response that nothing was possible. Quoted: "Sorry we aren't giving you a refund. Good night." We of course emailed again that we do not think this is sufficient. We received a longer email in return, in which there is no room for what is possible, with regard to the processing and compensation of our complaint. We have therefore once again indicated that we believe that this complaint should be taken more seriously, because we really experienced this as an infringement of our privacy. We have had no response to that.
​
​AV Stays comes across to us as a very inhospitable organization that makes very little effort to take customer questions seriously and resolve them. Matters are also poorly organized organizationally (rental contract not provided on time, login code not provided on time and deposit not refunded on time). They do not adhere to their own conditions. On their website we read that they are very customer-oriented, we have never experienced this. We never want anything to do with this company again.

However, Booking did take our complaint seriously and compensated us. They also recovered the deposit. Big compliment, this is what good service looks like!!

Familie v. H.

Great place to stay , close to lordship lane , the train and busses into london.

Trustpilot says the review must be at least ten characters; I am going to use one word, four characters to describe how pleasant has been my stay so far with AV Stay. Love 🥰

What a disaster
London apartment at Vauxhall Bridge hosted by James. Couldn't get the deposit to go through using their link at the eleventh hour a payment using ApplePay finally went through otherwise they wouldn't give me the code to get into the apartment. Very stressful. Check in is 3pm but couldn't access the apartment until 6.30pm and only because I had to get Booking.com involved. The contact phone number stopped being answered at 3.30pm. Had to collect the key from a very dodgy shop quite a walk away from the apartment when it's pouring with rain and then when you get there the key isn't there because the cleaner hadn't dropped the key off. Twice I trudged to this shop and both times the key wasn't there. Finally got holder of the cleaner because Booking.com got involved, she let us in at 6.30pm but the cleaner didn't leave the apartment until 8.30pm so we couldn't go anywhere until she was finished. Electricity trip switch in the apartment kept tripping off when electrical appliances were used. The cupboard with the electricity box in was piled high with linen covering the electricity box. Hair dryer actually caught on fire and the fire alarm didn't go off. Bathroom, dirty, mouldy and the extractor fan was smashed. I notified James about these things on the Saturday morning and he did refund me a good will payment of £80 for the inconvenience. Even so, what we went through, plus the cost of the booking there should have been some money back, it spoilt our weekend away. After writing to Booking.com to get some compensation it appears James has decided not to respond. My booking was actually cancelled by AV Stays and put down as a no show. I am still waiting for my deposit of £250 to be refunded after four weeks, it should take 2 weeks at the most. I'm assuming the fact that the accommodation is showing as a 'no show' they are withholding my deposit. I have taken the deposit issue up with Booking.com, who have now sent me a form to fill in and say they will refund the deposit if the host doesn't.
I will never recommend AV Stays to anyone. I did research them before booking and now after the event I think the 5 star reviews are dodgy too.
Before you respond AV Stays please be aware we have taken photographs during our stay and documented everything and can prove all the accusations I have made.
The telephone number for their customer services is no longer available

Update after AV Stays response ; no refund has been sent to my bank account as of today 9th January 2025 and my reservation was 6th December 2024

I am not going to respond to the feedback received from AV Stays, everything I have said was genuine and truthful, I am not getting into a stupid argument, we both know who is telling the truth. I just want my deposit back. This is now in the hands of Booking.com
Update as of 21.1.2025: 6 weeks after our check out, still no refund from AV Stays and I am waiting for Booking.com to refund the deposit as they said they would. Unfortunately they are waiting to hear from AV Stays and so far there has been no answers to Booking.com phone calls or emails.

I had a great stay,
I highly recommend it.🙏🥰

Clean, well-furnished apartment and in a good location. Megan (Host on Airbnb) was terrible though. Matthew/Andrew however, is accommodating. since she decided to preempt a negative review from me and state she had issues hosting me. Kindly come here and stipulate these issues. WIFI is not listed as an amenity but is complimentary. I had begged Megan (not reading the full list as I assumed that WIFI would be the minimum provided by a company-owned hosting company). Her responses were curt and dismissive, and then the company proceeded to charge my card - not block funds as stipulated in their deposit policy which she kept referring to. I was not informed of this charge until I called my bank. Then she said that She would have explained to me if I had asked. LOL! Refunds were not made until I called my bank and contacted Megan. She should provide details on any issues I had caused during the hosting aside for asking for good working WIFI- which Matthew assisted with, PAID extension of half-day stay - which she declined and I moved out as agreed, and delayed refunds of security deposit.

Happy to post screenshots of our conversation.

Standing 10 toes down on the review. I see Megan has managed to secure another unsavory review on trust pilot with similar issues on how charging for deposits rather than blocking it as stated in their policy, getting irritated with requests or complaints. Megan, as the owner of a rental business in hospitality, if you don’t know have the requisite training on customer service, please hire someone who does, rather than take accountability you are flagging my review as defamatory when you accused me of slander, because your ratings have dropped significantly. Trust pilot might decide to take down this review, it’s in the past and I have dealt with the trauma your service caused me.