“We visited in April to celebrate my partners 30th birthday.”
The cottage was beautiful, but unfortunately filthy. We spent the first night cleaning thick black dust & cobwebs from the living room, kitchen, stairs and bathroom. There was also food splashed up the tiles and wall by the job in the kitchen, and obvious black mould around the mastic around the countertop. The counters were also sticky, including the kitchen island which was varnished & had newspaper print stuck to it. Literally a few seconds with a wipe and it was gone, which would suggest none of the surfaces had been wiped down. We also had to re wash the white bed linen as although it was of good quality, there were several questionable orange marks, and the throw also had a lot of black dog hair on it, as well as the marks. We have two dogs ourselves so don’t expect it to be pristine, but one run through the washing machine with a normal amount of vanish (found in the kitchen cupboard under the sink) & the stains and most of the hair had gone. When we removed the bedding the mattress had a lot of liquid marks and debris, just a hoover and a waterproof mattress protector from Asda would have helped with this. There was also a lot of black mould in the bathroom and in the kitchen. There was also some in the airing cupboard but that wasn’t an issue. The issue was the large pieces that we were able to remove just by buying a £1 bottle of Astonish mould remover the next morning. We felt dirtier for showering the next morning & then found black mould the size of the palm of my hand where the bread boards were stored, making direct contact with something used in food prep. Yes the cottage was older, the doors were a bit stiff and the window in the living room leaks, but the cottage was filthy. The sofa in the living room also needed restuffing, as you could feel the wooden slats underneath you. This one wasn’t a major issue, but will also point it out whilst I’m here! To make it worse, Sykes communication with the owner was awful. We arrived on the Sunday & spent the evening cleaning, as well are part of Monday morning. We were told the owner would come by Monday night (so we stayed in) but they never did. Tuesday morning we were told there had been a communication error & he would turn up at some point that day, but to leave the keys to the property in the lock box for him to gain access. I had already told them we had cleaned everything but the shower & the thick hair & dust around the fridge (we refused to cook there even after scrubbing it, so left it as it was making us retch & generally upsetting at this point!) Tuesday night we got back to nothing changed, with a message from Sykes saying the owner would now be visiting Wednesday morning. That night we decided to cut the ‘holiday’ short & drive the 6 hour journey home the next morning. After getting home & contacting Sykes several more times, we were given a partial refund of £200. The original booking was £370. I understand people need to make a living, but my partners break to celebrate his 30th birthday was ruined because of a build up of black mould and thick, dark dust, cobwebs and questionable marks allover the bedding. I did think a lot about holding off on such a negative review, but the cottage was filthy & I would be embarrassed living in that, let alone renting it out for a week at £370. I really hope that since our stay the cleaning regime has been changed, or if the owner finds out that a stay has been that bad they could make contact with the customer. We weren’t able to contact them, but we’ve used Sykes several times before this & the owners have always had access of our numbers & messaged us with access details or just introducing themselves which was a nice touch before our stay. Just a suggestion but would have probably softened what happened. Also a broom would have also helped in the cottage.
Positive points were that it was nice to watch the cows in the field opposite in the morning & the cottage was very pretty (if you squinted)
Thank you for your feedback, we are really sorry that you experienced these issues during your stay. We have sent a quality assurance assessor to the property following your experience and the points you have raised are being looked into and rectified. We did offer 2 re-cleans during your stay however, you were not happy to accept. Should a re-clean have been carried out most of these issues may have been rectified during your stay hopefully making for a more enjoyable week. Again, we apologies for your experience with us and this is in stark contrast to other reviews. Property Owner