Good letting agent

Can someone suggest a good letting agent or firm to help me find a serviced/furnished apartment in the West End (Kensington, Chelsea, Not Hill, Holland Park, etc.). I've e-mailed Foxton but gotten no response.

Hi. Dont know of any letting agents for your area but this site may be able to help you.
www.rightmove.co.uk
good luck!

Sorry to say there is no such thing as a GOOD letting agent and I would definitely steer clear of Your Move.  Try and rent through a private landlord if you can, you will have much less hassle geting things done and getting your deposit back at the end.

If it is short term, you can do a google search and you should turn up some results - at one point we thought we needed a short-term serviced flat and I was able to find several in the area you describe. Rightmove tends IME to have only properties available for long-term lease (6 mos or longer). I agree with Pebbles - there's no such thing as a GOOD letting agent (or estate agent when you are buying!). 

Can I just third that there are no good letting agents!!!!! (Have you got it yet?)

We rented the first place, paid over 200 GBP in fees, second place was a private let, excellent landlord- full deposit back- couldn't have been better.

Then we moved to York- just couldn't get a private let, so we had to go through the agencies and again 150 GBP fee, contract fee, 700 GBP deposit PLUS first months rent.  Have to do everythign when we leave (shampoo carpets, can't hang much up, etc) and get this- the garden was a weedy mess, there was a layer (literally a layer) of thick dust on the carpet and no lightlbulbs, not one single light shade in the bedrooms and no mirror or toilet paper roll hanger in the bathrooms.

Lettings agencies- BLAH BLAH, AGHHHH

Also, they are the worst snobs in all of Britain and if one more corrected me when I said the garden was a "yard" or vice versa, I was almost ready to throw a punch!

I don't know anything about this letting agent but this building is nice.  My friend's mum stayed there for a month this summer and it's conveniently located, has nice rooms.  It's located in Sloane Square, Chelsea. 

http://www.findaproperty.com/agent.aspx?agentid=1352&opt=prop&pid=370273


Good luck getting any letting agents to talk to you until you are here and ready to move in.  The property market in London moves very quickly and agents won't bother talking to you unless you're ready to move ASAP.  I'd suggest just biting the bullet and staying at a service/executive apartment for a few weeks until you can get your own place.  I was able to move into my flat in about 2 weeks after signing papers.  The only hold up was getting enough cash together for the deposit because I didnt' have a bank acct yet.

so after a day spent with letting agents (Foxtons, Chard, John D. Wood) I'm surprised at the negative responses on the subject on UKNY. All 3 I worked with were quite professional, non-pressured, and showed me some very nice places. The 300 pound fee, as I understand it, is not for the search but only if you rent one of their listings and covers their time of negotiations, paperwork, references, credit etc. Anyway, if any others are looking, the letting agent companies are a good way to at least begin and get a measure of what you can find for the money.

£300 for the credit check etc!! OMG we paid £200 and I thought that was bad.  The agencies that do the credit  & reference checking by the way only charge £25 per person.   Also, when you move out, there is usually another fee for departing, or if you extend the lease yet another fee for that.  As for getting your deposit back afterwards ... be prepared to lose a couple of hundred quid for committing such sins as leaving rubbish in the bin and a bit of dust on the skirting board.  Up to you of course, but given a choice I would never go through a letting agent again.

I wouldn't pay 300 quid for letting agent fees.  I thought I was getting hosed with 150!  Look in Loot for private landlords.  I was lucky to find my flat thru an agent but it was managed by my landlord.  I got all of my deposit back and didn't have to deal with the smarmy letting agent again.

Also, they are the worst snobs in all of Britain and if one more corrected me when I said the garden was a "yard" or vice versa, I was almost ready to throw a punch!

It's not necessarily 'snobbery'... there is a HUGE difference between a garden and a yard in the UK.   Gardens are usually lawns with plants... maybe a patio or shed.  A yard, on the other hand, is usually a concrete area for storing your bins... if youre lucky, it will be large enough for a clothesline/whirligig.

I dont like letting agents either, but if i were a landlord using one to let out one of my properties, i would certainly hope that they would be letting prospective tenants know that the property has a garden and not just a yard!!

This happened more than once and was when we were either looking out the window at a property or standing outside.  I would say "Hmmmm....a decent yard" and they would say (rather smarmily) "We call this a garden".  It annoyed my British husband as well.

In their position, I would consider it bad taste to "correct" a client using a different term in that way.

Perhaps I am wrong.