“Very disappointed.”
Strong smell of damp. Wallpaper hanging off walls and ceilings. Cobwebs, fly poo, dead flies stuck on blinds. Clear signs of damp. Paint on bed sheets. Radiator hanging off wall. Locked in bedroom at 2am in the morning door handle broken. Awoken at 4am following morning fire alarm going off. Opposite a busy road and builders yard ...noisy. outside entrance uneven steps dark trop hazard lighting not working. Absolute nightmare. I have given the owners fair and reasonable opportunity to appropriately compensate us but they have chosen not to and instead are now suggesting the bedroom door may need to be replaced although yesterday they said it was fine? The cottage if you can call it that needs an overhaul I could go on but safe to safe would not recommend under any circumstances
This was a very last minute booking & our housekeeper went out of her way to pop down & give it a freshen up (having stood empty for a few weeks), this happened to be the hottest weekend so far this year, & occasionally if it is extremely wet outside there could be very rarely a slight odour, but as she had entered the premises she detected no damp smell. As it was very warm she opened a few windows to let the warm air circulate, left fresh milk & bottle of wine in the fridge.
There could possibly have been a corner of wallpaper in the kitchen where it joins the wood paneling, this is on a corner & does have a tendency to be brushed past. We had no prior knowledge of a radiator hanging off the wall but it would appear that it may have been accidently knocked, as it is next to the offending door. The bracket had been bent giving the appearance of the radiator being slightly lopsided - this has now been rectified.
As I live 50 miles from Haltwhistle, I totally depend on my housekeeper - who lives 2 mins away & her phone number in is the guest book, to problem solve if they can, which was why i wasn't sure of the door lock. The bedroom door isn't an actual lock, but the mechanism had become stuck apparently - this has never been mentioned by any prior guest or the housekeeper. I was assured that it as totally fine once the screws had been replaced by a local joiner (although, I was willing to replace the door, had it been dangerous).
This is a country property, as is my own house, I am aware that cobwebs can be removed in the morning & re-appear in the afternoon. The flies stuck in the blinds could have happened overnight, as there are very tiny flies often up there as it is next to a burn. My housekeeper always wipes the blinds as part of her routine, but as the cottages are cleaned as soon as possible after guests leave, then when she went down to do a freshen-up she could have missed these. I have no notion of what fly poo is?
There are only smoke alarms in this property, as it is all electric, the batteries were renewed at the beginning of the season, so I have no idea why they would bleep, unless someone had been smoking or burning toast or the batteries had been faulty........
Lisa could find no sign of paint on the bedsheets & as we have oodles of spare bedding they certainly would not have been used had paint been on them.
There are two bypasses in Haltwhistle, so although the road is outside it is only used by local village traffic. The road is clearly visible on the images of Bridge Cottage. As for the builders yard - the back of it adjoins the road opposite, so most of the business is done from the opposite side of the yard. It is not open weekends. I can only apologise for her early awakening @ 8.30am on Monday morning.
The steps to the rear of the cottage that she mentions are the same rustic type used at Cragside and many country walks, however ours have PIR lighting as well as solar lights.
I did offer a 10% reduction & Sykes did return her booking fee. I can say not more than this & I will never again take a very last minute booking due to the extra costs incurred from this particular booking. At least the two previous clients have both loved Bridge & Haltwhistle even though they had some of the worse storms ever.
Property Owner
