We stayed at Europa House for 3 months while in London for my husband's job. If you are staying here for a week or two, I'm sure it's a fine place to stay. But I would not recommend it for an extended stay or if you are bringing small children.
We booked the apartment after viewing it online and my husband seeing a unit in person. Management gave away that unit (which was lovely, garden facing, etc.) and promised one "identical". Unfortunately, it was not.
While ALL of the photos on their web site show hardwood floors, there are some units with all white carpeting in every room but the kitchen and baths. That is what we were given and when we asked to move when another unit became available, we were given the run around. Once they had us locked into a 90 day lease, they didn't want to move us.
We have a 2 year old who got two stains on the carpet. The first one we were charged the equivalent of $100 USD for a spot clean from a professional carpet cleaner. While I agree it needed professional cleaning, that price seemed steep. After the second spot, which was some mud on his shoe, we were delivered a bill to REPLACE the entire room of carpet. No, I am not joking. After a lot of back and forth with management, we again paid for the professional cleaning. But it took a LOT of haggling.
It was exhausting. I think they knew we were there for work and intended to charge us for everything they could. So probably best to avoid if you are in town for work, as well. My husband found staying here was just added stress, whereas other serviced apartments try to make business traveler stays easy and convenient.
From the day we moved in, it felt like we were frequently bothered by management on one topic or another. Mail, internet, handyman issues, the carpets, etc. It felt like it took a lot of work communicating with them to stay there. Typically we would receive communications in the form of a letter slipped under the door from them on Friday at office closing time. Questions had to wait until Monday.
We also had an issue with management just walking into our apartment if we didn't answer the bell. This got VERY annoying when they would wake my son up from his nap. I had to start using the chain on the door every time we were home. It's also illegal in the UK to enter a unit without prior permission from the tenant, according to one of the attorneys at my husband's company. Europa House has written the lease agreement in a way they feels allows them to do this, but the attorney thought it was basically in there to allow them to break the law when their tenants (usually from other countries) don't know any better.
If you do decide to stay, be sure to only book a unit that is facing the garden. The units like ours that faced the street are very noisy. There is a heavily attended primary school across the street and you can hear the children playing outside before school, during the lunch hour and after school for about an hour each time. Before we signed the lease, I told management I was concerned about the noise and was told it would be 45 minutes a day total. WRONG.
The street also has pretty heavy traffic and there is a busy, popular pub next door. The windows are old and have not been glazed to prevent sound so all in all, our unit was very noisy. We all had trouble sleeping. This is not huge to deal with for a week or two, but by a month in, we were ready to pull our hair out.
The furniture is uncomfortable and the mattresses are hard. The cable consists of about 7 channels, which got tiring in an extended stay. There is no gym and no discount for the local gym. There are no business facilities to use, such as printer, fax, etc. I will say the shared garden out back is lovely and there is a small playground out there for the kids. So Europa House has that going for them.
Internet access costs extra - about 70 or 80 pounds a month, which seems significantly marked up. We were charged even though our internet didn't work most of the time we were there. We had to use another unit's internet and the signal was poor.
House cleaning for anything longer than a short term stay is just once a week, which was not adequate in a carpeted apartment when you are given no vacuum cleaner! We negotiated for an extra cleaning each week, but for anything more there was a fee.
The kitchen has a washer/dryer combo machine, but I found that the dryer did not actually dry clothes, so I had to line dry everything. I think the washer/dryer was on the cheap side, as it didn't work very well.
The kitchen was stocked with an odd assortment of cheap, mismatched IKEA dishes and tableware. I had to buy quite a few things in order to even cook. No measuring devices, no cookie sheet, no can opener. Considering what we were paying and how long we were staying, I found the kitchen to be completely inadequate. The pealing linoleum counters were a nice touch, too.
For the price per week, I think this property is missing the amenities and nicer finishes/furnishings of its competitors in town. They are fortunate that there are not many serviced apartments in the Maida Vale/Little Venice area. If you are not picky on what area you need to be in, like we were, I would look elsewhere. I think you will find you can do better for the price.
Overall, it was a bad experience for us and we left a few weeks early because we were so desperate to get out of there. We are still in London for my husband's job but opted to go through the trouble of moving to have a nice play to stay. Bottom line: I can't recommend Europa House and would never allow someone I know to stay there. Buyer beware.
