Guest365 Reviews 3

The team at guest 365 were really helpful with assiting with my requests over my stay- sorting out an extention and really friendly and quick with their responses. Thanks for everything!

I stayed at one of their properties for 2 weeks in Manchester and the customer service was excellent, lovely clean room, easy check in process and overall a great experience. Recently decided to book with them again as they are reliable and guaranteed a great experience.

A recent accommodation booking in Liverpool was my first Guest365 experience as far as I know. I hope it will be my last. The company acts as the managing agent for serviced accommodation on behalf of the owners of individual properties. Pre-stay correspondence gives the misleading impression of direct contact with the owners.

Things I didn't like:
1) Over intrusive identity verification including copy of passport, raising security concerns which were later magnified by numerous spam messages, supposedly from the property, fraudulently seeking payment card details. I reported this immediately but the messages continued. I understand that this usually arises from weak security on the accommodation provider’s side, not from a hack of Booking.com’s central system or infrastructure.
2) Time wasting demand for late confirmation of arrival time. Having lengthily navigated the web site to get to the relevant part, there was no option to confirm an arrival time, only an option to change it.
3) Non-arrival of the confirmatory email which should have included a code to enable key collection.
4) At the collection point the key could be released by the shop-keeper only with the code. Confirmation of the booking was not enough. I called the phone number listed for the property. It was not until then that I realised I was dealing with an agency. At first the operator could find no trace of my booking. It took nearly 20 minutes before resolution, despite the Booking.com confirmation details.
5) The address was listed incorrectly on the Booking.com site (it still is). It took another lengthy phone call to the Guest365 operator to locate the apartment.
6) The apartment was pervaded by awful smells. A grill-pan in the oven had not been washed and contained rancid fat. The bathroom smelled of drains. There was a cobweb on the ceiling and crumbs in the kitchen drawer mechanism.

We walked out and booked alternative Booking.com accommodation nearby. Time was short and we had already wasted an hour collecting the key and finding the property. This was a mini-break in celebration of our Golden Wedding Anniversary (we were married nearby in 1975). The smell was the deal-breaker. A quick clean and an air-freshener spray would not have provided a quick cure. The apartment needed a lengthier period of ventilation too.

Problems can occur in any business and ill-will is usually easily avoided by judicious use of an apology and appropriate redress, when a complaint is justified. But instead of doing the right thing and acknowledging the failure, Guest365 have simply dug their heels in and refused a refund.

I use property agents to let several of my own properties. But if any of them showed such evidence of poor administration, weak security systems and a similarly cavalier attitude to the users of the accommodation, they would not be my agents for much longer.