“The property was not cleaned properly.”
Though the bedrooms and bathrooms were clean, the living room and kitchen were neglected. The sitting room had not been dusted or hoovered. There was filth on the carpets, remains of food under the furniture, crumbs on coffee table, and the floor had not been swept nor washed. In the kitchen, the floor was filthy: remains of food on floor, sticky, crumbs, sand etc. Whoever cleans this property is of the school of - clean around furniture, but ignore underneath. The counter tops had perhaps had a quick wipe with a cloth at most, but once again, if a cloth was passed on the counters, the items standing on the counters were not moved, so whatever remains were there from previous users. On the kitchen island, the cleaner was kind enough to leave a covered cake stand, empty but for some leftover crumbs. The sieve in the sink had remain of food.
We contacted Cornish & Devonshire customer service immediately upon arrival in the property and asked that a cleaner be sent to rectify. I also tried ringing but there was an answering machine telling me I would need to hold for over an hour! After sending several emails, I received an email with an saying: we apologise but hope you enjoy the rest of your stay. I sent another email demanding that the situation be rectified, as an apology is not a resolution, and that we would make sure that we would stay away from the cottage while a cleaner came in to enable social distancing. I also said I would file a form complain. The next day I received an email saying my complaint has been passed on to someone else. I sent this person another email explaining what the issues were.
I heard nothing back. On Thursday, a day before leaving the cottage, I contacted the complaints department again and reiterated that I would be raising a formal complaint on my return, as nothing was done to rectify. I received another email with an apology: "I can only apologise for the cleaners not coming round to resolve your complaint, we have reported it to the local office twice and was informed by them that the cleaners were going round on the 18th to resolve this for you."
We have been staying in cottages for many years. On a couple of occasions were there has been an issue, these have been resolved quickly. This was not the case with customer service of Cornish & Devonshire Cottage Holidays.
