“The owner of the property lives in the cottage next door with his family and 2 large dogs.”
The entrance on and off the holiday property is via large yard where the owner keeps bees and has a large shed/outbuilding. The owner used this are on occasion during our stay and was out there with the dogs. You are unable to access the holiday cottage without going via this yard/space. The dogs, one in particular, do come over and bark and growl which made my daughter nervous. The back entrance to the property smelt of damp dog and the freezer, which is housed within this area, had mold all around the opening and lid. We left our food in there and didn't use any of the kitchen appliances beyond the kettle and toaster! The oven was filthy! Every saucepan and frying pan was dirty. On some of them the non stick surface was scratching off and would very easily peel off into your food. There were dirty baking trays in the cupboard which were rotten and unusable. The oven was disgusting, there were more baking trays in there which had clearly been used and just left in there dirty. The sheet on the double bed had black marks on it and the blue sheet on one of the single beds had odd white stains on it, possibly bleach. The 2 large white sofas had both seen better days and became very depressed when sat on. I have left the property with a bad back from using these sofas and am now on strong pain killers. The stairs are very steep and become narrow and take a sharp turn almost half way up. They are less than an average foot width wide at this point making navigating them with a suitcase very difficult. Finally the Cockerel. Every single morning at, or even before 5 am the cockerel would wake you up. Whether you are in the front or the back bedroom you could hear him. So unless you like an early start bring ear plugs! Had we not made bookings to use beach huts and see other attractions and see friends we would have gone home. This was not a pleasant stay. If I had been able to upload pictures on here I would have have!
A lot of the key points raised here are actually in SYKES description of our property!!!
YES, the stairs are steep but it's a very, very old cottage so we have installed a hand rail to help with that issue.
YES, our accommodation is nestled within a small holding resulting in noise from livestock, but in a peaceful rural setting.
Our cottage is pet friendly and YES we have two beautifully soppy and trained labradors (pin & meg)
There is parking opposite the property with access via the front gate (2nd entry point) but for guests security we offer off road parking.
As for the cleanliness of our well maintained cottage, it's a shame you didn't adopt your own hygiene policy when vacating the property, resulting in your undue compensation claim being unsuccessful.
Property Owner