Matt Davison
I asked for a refund within 24hrs of arriving at Playworking and in exchange I wouldn't review the place (this is what I do for a living) but Jeffery told me he wouldn't refund me, and I should write a review. So here it is; Playworking is the worst coliving that I've stayed at. I didn't get a confirmation on payment or confirmation of arrival. I had to call on the day to check everything was ok with my booking and was told someone would pick me up at the bus stop. I waited 30min for a full car of people to pick me up after calling a few times. Better to have taken a taxi for 15 Euro. In email the room I had booked was described as spacious. It is the furthest thing I've from spacious I've encountered. They moved me to another room but not 1 room has a desk in (except the penthouse and a makeshift desk corner another long term stayer made). Most of the rooms are filled with extra bunk beds (so there is space for desks, kinda). Jeffery uses volunteers to run this coliving and his other tour business. They often out numbered the guests but the volunteers were nice. But very hard to work productively with no desks in rooms and a lot of volunteers in the house. It's honestly more of a hostel than a coliving. My room flooded when it rained. Dishwasher broke and my toilet broke and took atleast a week to fix. There is a nice beach 20 - 30 min walk down a huge hill. Everything else is also a 20 - 30 min walk. There is a car and sometimes 2 but with it doing tours and more than 10 people and the second car being a tiny convertible, it's just not practical. Although nice that we had the chance to use it occasionally. The place is extremely overpriced and selling the rooms for more than 1000 - 1250 Euros is laughable. If the rooms were less than 1000 in summer it could make more sense. I think with a little organization, an investment in desks (and chairs) and losing the many many bunk beds it would be better. Annalice, one of the volunteers made a great effort to try organize and bring change and better stuff in the house (they got a table tennis table and more hammocks). Place is not worth the price as you can get better accommodation on the river for the same price. Not a bad coliving because there are other long stayers there and someone always keen to do something.