Please forgive me for crossposting with my other thread, but I just saw a recommendation by Pauline to make a thread with rental agency and property name in the title.

Has anyone stayed here
http://www.chslondon.com/vr/bro/bro.htm
? There are no reviews. Lots of kind folks in the "choosing between London rental flats" thread I started have helped us narrow down to this one as our first choice.

Any recent experiences with Coach House London at all would be great to hear about. Thanks, and sorry for the multiple threads!

I have never had any experience with any of the rental agencies in London~
Hopefully someone will respond. I'm sure you have googled them?
I can speak for the location. Excellent!

Thanks, bugalu! I still haven't heard back from them about availability for it anyway, but I think I've forever talked myself out of doing business with them (I want to stress that I have no connection to them and have never done business with them, so I'm just going by what's on the big bad internet)... On this board, if you scroll down to Jan 26 2007 (they are in chronological order), there is a very damaging review by a person named Cindy saying they had a chunk of their deposit withheld with little explanation: http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/graffiti23.html

Almost more unnerving to me, though, is the subsequent flood on that board of sugary posts about Coach House London that all follow a similar formula in recommending it.

I just don't think I can overcome how uncomfortable that makes me! Sigh... back to the drawing board. Maybe we're going to have to spend more than we can afford just for peace of mind.

I'm sorry you are having trouble getting feedback.

I can't recommend any agencies, although I, too, would love to find a good one!

(I have mentioned before the sad tale of the building off the King's Road my family used for more than 20 years being sold last year.)

londonservicedapartments.co.uk seems to have some nice buildings I'm familiar with, but I've never used them. Any feedback from recent users?

I CAN recommend Vancouver Studios in Bayswater, if you want to keep something in your back pocket. Search on this site for reviews and mentions.

It's not exactly what you looking for, it's more of a hotel with kitchenettes (2-burner stove but no oven, a microwave, toaster, kettle, fridge pots & pans, dishes & utensils, kitchen sink & washing items, dining table & chairs).
Personally? Unless you have severe dietary issues or are a super serious cook, there's so much interesting prepared food to try, from Whole Foods, markets and other places, I think you might do more reheating and assembling than flat-out cooking.

But the price is right, free in-room wifi, great location, very quiet, 24-hour reception, nice staff. Safe area with many shops, Tesco Metro right across from Tube station.
Five very steep stories and no elevator is the only downside.

As I said, keep it as a fallback plan.

Moderator Maureen likes to stay at the Vancouver Studios - Read London vacation rental reviews here. We have several reviews for Coach House London - many seem to have come in around the same time, which might mean they are asking people to send in reviews to us and is not necessarily a bad thing, but I would have a good read thru the reviews if you are still thinking of using them.

My wife and I stayed at a Coach House flat in October (in Bermondsey - their code BWE). As I recall, the booking process started with our choice of 3 flats that we would be interested in. They then checked with the owners and got back to us in 2 or 3 days. Based on that response, we chose one of the flats. The rest of our experience with them went smoothly (ie deposit, check in, return of deposit). We had a problem with the wireless internet connection while we were in the flat. They spent quite a long time with me on the phone to resolve the problem.

Hope that helps

We stayed in the carriage house just behind the owner's home, Harley & Meena, in 2005. The apartment is okay except for controlling the hot water for the shower - it's was either scalding hot or cold. It is also away from the city center but a tube stop is close by. We will not stay there again because of the incoveniences.

I also saw a while back either here or fodors a post by Harley tooting the apartments they rent out as if he was a renter instead of owner/property manager. And that's a no-no in my book. Also, all the rental reviews appear to have been posted during the same period, so they look suspect to me. That is not to say that the rentals are not good, just questionable business practice.

Thank you all so much -- really helpful. We have tentatively decided to rent from A Place Like Home, and will post yet another thread (!) about our top choices in case anyone has feedback about them. Thank you for the Vancouver Studios recommendations -- they do indeed fit our price range and the location is excellent, but because we both have serious food allergies, we really need a fully equipped kitchen with room for full-on cooking.

Anyway, my impressions of Coach House London are totally confirmed! Thanks again.