No 13 Half Moon Street

Stayed for 3 nights at Fleming's Mayfair, 13 Half Moon Street Apartments at the conclusion of our central europe vacation. London was our final destination before heading home. I had chosen an apartment stay in London because it's much better value than London's overpriced hotels. It also offered us access to our own washer-dryer inside the apartment. After 2 weeks of sightseeing in Europe we desperately needed to wash our clothes. Moreover I chose Fleming's 13 Half Moon Street Apartments because it has a superb Mayfair location.

All -n-all, the apartment was nice and for 3 days it met our needs. It was moderately luxurious, it was affordable, it had a perfect little kitchen, a comfortable king bed and a fairly modern bath with tiny shower stall and 1/2 bath off the LR. For 2 people it's perfect.

However, a couple of complaints need mentioning. When I first arrived, the first apartment we were taken to had a very small double bed. Better suited for 1 person. When I first made the reservation 6-months prior, I had requested an apartment with a king bed---alll documented and acknowledged. When I intitally complained, the hotel floor manager immediately switched us to the correct apartment, while telling us how fortunate this was that the 2nd apartment was still available. Hmmm. No biggie, but certainly a questionable beginning. Nonetheless we got the right apartment and that's what counts.

The apartment's washer/dryer was something out of the 19th century. The washer is soooooo slow, while the dryer isn't really a dryer, it's a tumbler. It took all day and all night to wash and tumble and by morning the next day, my clothes were still wet. When I complained, the hotel staff again apologized and offered to dry my clothes at no extra charge. I was able to clean enought until I got home which was better than nothing. Once that situation was rectified, our overall stay at the apartment improved.

Also, something else worth mentioning. I noticed whenever we turned on the faucets to wash our hands it would take twenty seconds or so before water would come out. (Perhaps we Americans are too spoiled). Anyway, according to the hotel staff, plumbing in London is in desperate need for a major makeover. Perhaps we Americans forget how old London really is. Oddly enough, we didn't have that problem anywhere else in Europe. Hmmm. Maybe that's what makes it charming.

Lastly, we had two TV's, one in the LR and one in the bedroom. Both were small HD TV's. However, twice I had to have service on the bedroom TV because it continued to malfunction. Funny, but the hotel only offers just a few channels anyway, making it really not worth watching. (Sometimes after a long day of sightseeing, we like to come back in the late afternoon and watch CNN, catch up on what's going on at home). Good televisions in Europe's better hotels are also very available, but not at this hotel/ apartment for some odd reason. However, we didn't come to London to watch television. Still, it seems to me that would be something that should be a given.

Would I stay at this apartment hotel again? Oh absolutely! I loved the accomodations especially the location. It was comfortable, quiet and charming.

We took our two young boys and our grown niece to London during mid June 2007 and stayed at the 13 Half Moon Street Apartments in London Mayfair for 10 nights. This is a three bedroom serviced apartment that is affiliated with the Flemings Mayfair Hotel right next door. We were in the Sanford suite, aka room 602. We paid more than 500GBP per night and it was not worth one penny of it.

First of all, every floor board creaked in the apartment so badly that you knew exactly where each family member was in the two-storey apartment. That also goes for being awoken everytime our niece went to the bathroom in the middle of the night or when our upstairs neighbour walked about in his flat!

But that is just the beginning of it. Our washing machine was broken and water kept leaking out of it., this was eventually replaced. Three of the range on our stove did not light up because it would not

spark and we were given a gas gun and told to spark it manually. None of the TVs in our three bedrooms worked. The TV in the living room eventually broke down as well. The telephone lines failed and the internet also crashed. We were told that these were all because of faulty lines caused by the flood in other parts of UK, but I highly doubted it as people living acorss from us were getting crystal clear TV reception! On top of all this, there was no cold water in the faucets of our bathroom upstairs, not a drop of cold water in the bathtub or in the sink. This was fixed and a tiny stream

of cold water could flow out. Then the dining table felt like it was going to collaspe at any minute wobbling left and right everytime we had dinner. So we took turns to cut our meal to avoid the table from totally collasping on us. Being on the first floor right of Half Moon Street, you were awoken every morning bright and VERY early by delivery trucks and garbage collectors! I never slept past 7am and this was supposed to be a holiday!

Now, to top it all off, the ultimate insult is yet to come. I went to

the Flemings Mayfair hotel (that managed these apartments) to complain about all these defects asking for them to be fixed in one go so we could get a semi-normal life. I was subsequently contacted by the Guest Relations Manager who bluntly asked me to "come down and negotiate what compensation I wanted." It made me feel like I filed the complaint because I wanted a few dollars in return. It was the ultimate insult and it was done in bad taste. I refused the offer telling the lady that not everything can be measured in monetary terms! For the rest of our stay we were still left with a tiny stream of cold water running out of our facets, none of the TVs were fixed and we still took turns to cut our food! Yet iIn the end, we paid every penny on the bill, for dignity sake.

13 Half Moon Street apartments advertised itself to be a top grade serivce apartment. Nothing can be further from the turth. The worst part was really the insensitive manner in which our compliant was handled.

Please, if you need a serviced apartment in London, do not choose 13 Half Moon Street Apartments.

Christine Wong