“I'd like to start by saying we had a brilliant holiday we used the cottage as a base to walk the coastal path.”
The cottage is is a beautiful location but on opening the door the first thing we where hit by was a terrible smell of dog. We boiled up some coffee grounds to help get rid of the smell.
The quilt was awful very strained. I did take photos. We normally have our sleeping bags with us in the car but I'd taken them out for this trip. If we'd had them I would have used them instead.
The sink was very strained and needed a good clean. Again I do have photos. The carpet has seen better days.
When we came to use the vacuum cleaner it gave off really strong dog smells.
At one point we woke up to find we had no water. The owner lived next door but didn't answer her phone. I know she was poorly but she could have talked to us on the phone.We went with out water for over two hours not very nice when your thirsty.
This could be the most amazing place with a bit of updating and cleaning. I would rather have just emailed Sykes with the photos really but couldn't find an email address.
Up until now I haven't responded to any of my reviews on Sykes' own platform. I realise it is much better if I do and so here are my thoughts concerning your particular review....
Please feel free to forward your photos on. I don't dread or hide in fear of bad reviews, I learn from them. I spoke to Sykes who said you can telephone them to ask for the email address for any communications.
I agree, the carpet needs renewing now, it certainly is tatty in parts. It was on my to do list and as a popular property, it will have to wait until the end of the season.
We try to remove dog smells as much as possible. Clearly we weren't successful for your stay, for that I apologise. I can't imagine how coffee grounds were going to help.
The duvet I agree can look "strained" to some. However, it is cleaned regularly. It wasn't white when I bought it, it was beige and over the years has lost colour in parts. I can see that some people may think it's dirty and therefore I will have to buy another one.
As far as the sink is concerned, it is a good quality one. It has been soaked in bleach and cleaned endlessly over recent years. That is the colour we now have, clean but "strained" to some.
My tenant, Mal explained to you that both my 90 year old mother and I had covid during your stay. Had I been well and up the morning that there was no water on the whole farm, I would obviously have seen we'd had a power cut and corrected it immediately. Instead, Mal woke me up, explained there was "an angry woman outside with no water in her cottage." I later heard, it has to be said, your unfriendly phone message, "it's absolutely disgraceful."
I struggle with this attitude I'm afraid. I would ask you to bear in mind we live in a very rural area with our own private water supply. However, it was dealt with immediately and was quickly remedied.
Meanwhile, the people in the Granary cottage wondered if there was anything they could do to help. How different we all are.
In future I will ensure a large bottle of water is left in both cottages.
For the benefit of future people interested in booking a holiday here, I can assure you that I do my best to make my guests as comfortable as possible. For this, I rely on their honesty and openness to tell me during their stay if anything is not right. I'm unable to do anything after the event.
Thank you for your positive and in part helpful comments along with everything else you shared. I hope your next holiday cottage meets with your expectation.
Property Owner
