The Old Tea Factory - Brick Lane - Zone 1

Good location just not great for a family. Very loud. Fight and police activity outside the flat one night. Hot water supply dodgy, explained in the welcome packet but did not have access to this at booking or until the night before. Only had three people but still was an issue. Only 2 1/2 rolls of toilet tissue for 7 nights so had to buy our own, not a big deal but still odd and have not experienced that in many prior VRBO stays. Early check out at 10 am. No television, not an issue for us since we all use our devices but may be for some. Owner was responsive and seemed very nice

Nice simple place (what we wanted) in a great area. Perfect for our needs. The door lock and the radiators were a little tricky but were fine once we got the hang of them. Would do it again.

Space was perfect for our family. The Wifi was not very high performing, but everything else was lovely!

I chose this property because of its location (near business meetings I was attending) and the advertised "beautifully converted Victorian" atmosphere. The fact that it was a 3rd floor walk-up was not obvious in the initial description, although I fault myself for not reading all the fine print in the listing. The stairs were a bit of a physical inconvenience, but mostly resulted in very noisy comings and goings by others in the building. This was obviously a known problem, as there were signs in the flat warning against talking in the stairwell.The host asked me to upload my identification and that of my traveling companion in advance of arrival. When I challenged that request, I was told that pictures would do. Even that seemed unusual. I was concerned about identity theft in that partial payment had been made with a credit card. While the flat was nice and clean, it was fairly spartan. No television, no microwave, few towels (no washcloths), and the Wifi stopped working within 24 hours of our arrival. The latter was a particular problem because mobile phone reception was also poor.Communication with the host was via email only and was just short of unpleasant, with a focus on not being able to help in any way with special requests. Check-in involved two door code systems, both of which were finicky to use. The Wifi problem was not resolved during our stay (5 days). No basic information about local shops or restaurants was on offer.