Virginia House by City Living London

All enquiries leading up to our trip was good, including timely information for self check in. Great location with Holborn station at one end and Tottenham Court station at the other end, both less than 10min walk away. A couple of nice cafes for coffee and pastries at neighbouring streets, and Rondo’s serves a great breakfast. You could literally walk everywhere, some places just 3min away (British Museum), some places about 20min away (Covent Garden). The flat itself is a good size, with good sized rooms and bathroom, and a well-equipped kitchen. Decor was nice too. And there was a welcome basket with coffee, tea, milk and biscuits. There’s a washing machine but no dryer. As part of my enquiries I was told there is a drying rack but it wasn’t in the flat when we arrived. I raised this to the team and was informed that housekeeping would send one, but it never arrived. That wasn’t too much of a bother as luckily there was a clothes rail in one of the rooms and I used that. If you stay long and intend to wash clothes every day, buy your own laundry pods as the flat doesn’t supply more than a couple of washes. You’ll need shampoo and shower gel too, as the flat only provides a couple of days’ worth. Here are some things that could be improved on: The bathroom needs some hooks. Without hooks you only have the heating rail to hang your clothes and towel. The pillows are lumpy and small, and only one pillow per person. When watching TV, the TV would regularly turn off and back on by itself. One day, the heating and hot water were not working. I texted and called the number given for help 9am-5pm, and could not get through. Whatsapp messages were single tick. Basically the person’s phone was not turned on at all. (Even after I flew home it was still single tick, which leads me to believe that either the number given was wrong or not in use — so information like this should be checked before sending to guests.) I sent emails and got no response. I called the main office and was told someone would call me back but nobody did. I had to wait till 5pm to call the 5pm-9pm helpline. Finally I received an email with instructions to reset the boiler, and at 8pm someone called to give the same instructions. At that late stage, we really thought we would have to take a freezing shower that night if no help was forthcoming. Overall it was a great place to stay, just that some attention to detail would make for a more pleasant experience. Also, probably nothing can be done about the garbage that gets dumped right outside the main entrance, I’m not sure if that’s from the building’s residents or from somewhere else, so it’s really an unfortunate situation there.

This was our third time staying at the Virginia House. The location is very central and perfect for our needs. It's close to theatres, Soho, shopping and tons of restaurants. The 2 bedroom flat is beautifully furnished with all of the amenities we need. It's very spacious and super clean. There is no airconditioning but there are plenty of fans which keep it cool. There is no lift so I would recommend staying on a lower floor if possible if you have an issue with stairs. We love it so much that we have already booked our next trip to stay there. It is by far, our favourite place to stay when we are in London.