Stai Reviews 11

This company is a disgrace. They cancelled our booking on the morning of it starting - luckily I saw the message. Not even the courtesy of a phone call and absolutely no help whatsoever in finding a last minute alternative. They boast that they are a big company but have no contingency. This potentially ruined our trip for our grandsons first birthday celebration. Not only that but they requested all sorts of additional information beforehand and communication was very poor. DO NOT USE!!

Have stayed twice with this company 32A & 32C Fernside Road, Poole, BH15 2QZ, United Kingdom.

The 1st stay was great 32C . 2nd stay at 32A was awful once myself complained I was ignored no replies and I also asked for a part refund ignored . Happy to take your money but when complaining ignored which is very rude . Avoid this holiday let company very poor customer service . Beds were so uncomfortable mattresses need replacing myself and colleagues had alot of back pain . We had to check in to a local Premier inn due to being in alot of discomfort. Stai properties customer service is appalling

We booked this property for a Christmas stay and were extremely concerned by the condition on arrival. This went far beyond normal wear and tear and raised genuine health and safety concerns.

The most serious issues included:

A nail protruding through the living room carpet, which caused injury

Incorrect plumbing, including a hot tap fault that resulted in injury to my child

Heavily soiled and damaged carpets

Visible mould in the property

Wallpaper peeling from walls and plaster coming away

Windows that would not close properly

These are not issues that develop overnight. Reviews from previous guests, dating back several months, reference mould, carpet problems and general deterioration, indicating these are long-standing maintenance failures rather than isolated incidents.

Despite a £60 cleaning fee being included in the booking, the property was not clean on arrival. Cleaning was offered only after we raised concerns. Given it was Christmas Day, accepting this would have required us to vacate the property, which was not reasonable.

The compensation offered (£50) did not reflect the seriousness of the issues, the safety risks involved, or the injuries sustained.

This property was marketed as a professionally managed, hotel-alternative holiday let. At a minimum, guests should expect basic standards of cleanliness, maintenance and safety. In this case, those standards were clearly not met.

I would not stay here again and would strongly caution others to review recent feedback carefully before booking.

Extremely poor experience with Stai at an apartment in Westbourne, near Bournemouth.
The property felt uncared for and was in a poor state of repair. Multiple elements didn’t meet expectation.

• The kitchen window was smashed, and appeared to have been poorly covered with plastic film.
• The drawer of the freezer was significantly damaged.
• The window mechanism in an upper bedroom was non-existent; as a result, the windows did not shut and allowed a strong draft into the room.
• The carpet in much of the property - but most notably the eating area - was heavily stained, crusty and highly unappealing
• Picture frames were broken and a number of light fittings were simply bare bulbs hanging from the ceiling.
• It did not appear possible to control the heating, and the radiators and pipes made a lot of noise throughout the night
• The location was upfront about the metal staircase up to the front door from a service road behind the shops. The stairs were slippery to the point of being perilous in the wet weather
• The seating in the main lounge is deeply uncomfortable.
• No soap / shower gel was provided and no cleaning products. The property can sleep 10 people. There was not even bleach for the toilet.
• Would be nice if a washing machine tablet or powder was supplied.
• The very late check in and very early check out times seem designed to encourage the renter to spend more in order to maximise the stay.
After complaining to the host / owner, the complaint was handled poorly and a derisory offer of compensation was made.

Do not use this company. We paid just over £1000 to hire a four bedroom house in Bournemouth for the weekend and its condition was absolutely disgusting. Damaged furniture, broken window, dirty utensils, stains on the carpets and broken beds. Piles of litter and hundreds of flies under the outdoor stairs with bins overflowing and horrible smells. This company clearly has no management of the standards of the properties they are letting.
We have tired several times to speak with the letting company following our stay including sending photos and have been brushed off. We were told the manager will get back to you when they can and never heard anything back.

Disgustingly run company and four bedroom apartment in Bournemouth is not worth anyone’s hard earned money.

We had a lovely time in Bournemouth with our family and the holiday house was clean and close to the beach and the town centre, exactly what we wanted. Thank you for helping us create memories with our loved ones!

I reserved an apartment in Poole for one night through Booking, and the host wrote me an email asking for my ID and contact information (which is understandable). However, they also requested a security deposit that was nearly double the price of the room rent, and it was a requirement to sign a contract for the hire that included, among other absurd requests, cleaning the room and taking rubbish out, and if I did not comply, I would have to consent to deduct from my "refundable" security deposit £25 per hour for cleaning.

Cleaning is included in the rent, so that's a rip-off, but I thought they were trying to up the price. Three hours after I made my reservation, I called the host to cancel, but they obstinately insisted that I sign a contract or lose my money because they only allow cancellations up to 14 days before the arrival date. Fortunately, I was able to cancel by contacting the customer service department of the company I used to reserve the property. The only reason I'm writing this review is to prevent others avoid experiencing the same issues! Avoid at all costs!!.

Staying here wasn’t just a bad experience — it was a visceral attack on the concept of hospitality itself. If misery had a postcode, this place would be the headquarters. It felt like I wasn’t paying for a room — I was paying penance for sins in a past life.

Let’s talk about the “window.” Except it wasn’t a window — it was a slab of rotting wood jammed into a frame, as if someone’s last dying act was to half-heartedly board it up before abandoning all hope. It didn’t just fail to let light in — it sucked the will to live right out of the room. I’ve seen crime scenes with more warmth and structural integrity.

The wall looked like someone had lost a violent argument with a Nokia, except the Nokia lost. The gaping wound in the plaster screamed of rage, despair, and at least one felony. It wasn’t “wear and tear.” It was a psychological cry for help — from the wall, from the previous guest, maybe even the building itself.

Now let’s move to the bed, where hygiene went to die. Hair. So much mysterious, multi-origin hair, it could’ve qualified as a biodiversity project. I wouldn’t have been surprised if it stood up and introduced itself. The sheets felt like they’d last seen a washing machine during the Cold War.

The glasses — if you can call them that — looked like they’d been polished with a thumb dipped in cooking oil. Holding one was a gamble. Drinking from it? A brave act of biological Russian roulette.

And the shower didn’t work. At all. Not a drop. Not a squeak. Just dead silence, like it too had given up on this hellhole and resigned itself to a dry, meaningless existence. I ended up “washing” with a bottle of water like I was doing a budget Bear Grylls routine in the world’s saddest cave.

This place doesn’t just need knocking down — it needs to be erased from memory. Bulldoze it, burn the rubble, and launch the ashes into the sun. It’s less “accommodation” and more a monument to suffering.

Avoid this place like the plague. Actually, avoid it harder than the plague. The plague was cleaner.

We spent two nights at a 3 bed penthouse in Poole last weekend and had a brilliant time! Everything was as described, the place was lovely and clean and decorated beautifully. It was so nice to have free parking and the location was fabulous. Would definitely book through Stai again!

Convenient, cosy and comfortable apartment. Spacious and exactly as advertised. Well located and the property guide had useful local info too. We had a great stay and will be returning soon.

We booked Flat 5, Purbeck Court, Southbourne from the 16-20th September 2024.

The website showed pics of a flat with a modern clean bathroom. On arrival it was a different flat. The kitchen was completely different and the bathroom was last decorated about twenty years ago... mould on surfaces, ceiling paint flaking, light didn't work, corrosion on exposed copper pipes, crusty dried scum on the chrome shower hose, really scummy and dirty feel to it. Plus the boiler didn't work so we had no hot water or heating. The kitchen tap was constantly dripping into the stainless steel sink causing a noise nuisance at night. Unfortunately I am unable to add pics to this review.

Check in time is 4.00 pm and check out is 10.00 am. So you pay a day for nothing.

They leave an information folder in the flat with an Urgent Conversation number, email address, and mobile phone number for Whatsapp messages. No one ever answers the urgent number and no one ever replies to emails. They do eventually respond to Whatsapp. However, due to the late check in time there was no time left in the working day to get the issues fixed, so we had to spend the first evening and following morning washing in cold water with no light in the bathroom and no heating.

They eventually responded via Whatsapp the following morning and an engineer arrived at 5.00 pm... 24 hours after I'd reported the issues. He fixed the light in the bathroom, but was unable to fix the boiler or the tap in the kitchen.

I called the Urgent Conversation number... no answer, no option to leave a message.

I emailed... still waiting for a reply.

I sent a Whatsapp... no immediate response.

Not wanting to spend a third day with no hot water, no heating, a dripping tap, in a flat that was not the one advertised on the website, I was forced to vacate and book into a hotel.

Complained to stai.co.uk and requested a refund. They have not responded to me at all.

Also, the floors are very thin. You can hear upstairs moving about... almost like someone is upstairs in your house. This kept us awake on the first uncomfortable, cold, dirty night.

The communal entrance is grubby, dated, and smelt damp and musty.

Since typing this review Stai has replied saying they have no record of me... how convenient. I still have the pics, the booking correspondence, and the Whatsapp messages telling me they couldn't fix the issues.

You'll notice whenever Stai get a bad review they reply to it by denying any responsibility... even implying the aggrieved customer is a liar.

Also, we booked through Booking.com who were no help whatsoever and washed their hands of it. Fortunately, I paid with a credit card, so the credit card company refunded me and took up the case. If you still want to stay with this lot I strongly recommend paying by credit card.