“Begonia House is a comfortable, spacious holiday cottage with lovely sea views.”
However the doors for both the top floor WC and en-suite shower room stick, making exiting difficult. Ground floor bathroom door doesn’t close at all, making privacy impossible. There needs to be a clear warning about the fierceness of the ground floor shower, also.
We would have appreciated knowing about parking difficulties beforehand. Online photos suggest there’s parking outside the property but this isn’t possible due to the very narrow private road, and residents cars and plant pots. Even loading/unloading is extremely difficult. A note in the house suggested on street parking in Alnmouth by guests would be preferred, but in reality availability is very limited. Advance notice of this should be given.
Whilst overall the house is very clean, we did find on arrival dog hair all over the ground floor beds, including on pillows and sheets, and a maggot stuck to a coffee cup in the kitchen cupboard.
Finally, whilst we were a few minutes late leaving as we needed to carry luggage to a parking space some distance away, the cleaner with their family and children arrived at 10am wanting access to the property. This made our exit feel stressful & rushed.
11.10.23
Thank you for taking the time to give your considered feedback.
We’re really sorry that you encountered the problems that you detailed and we’d like to address them individually:
1) We were unaware that there was any problem with the doors. Now that you have informed us, through feedback, we have contacted the letting agents (Sykes) and their maintenance team are attending to that. On that note, if you had contacted them as soon as you were aware, during your stay, they would have offered to correct this for you.
2) We were unaware that the downstairs shower was “fierce” and will check this when the current guests leave this weekend and rectify as soon as possible.
3) With respect to parking outside the property, it should be noted that the lane is a private lane with space for one car. The lane is narrow but is navigable in an average-sized car. The letting agent will alter the information on this following your feedback.
4) The presence of dog hairs on the bedding in the ground floor bedroom and the dirty cup (maggot). We agree that this is completely unacceptable. This has been referred to the cleaning team. This is the first time in 10 years that a cleaning complaint like this has been noted so, again we sincerely apologise.
It would have been very useful, and to your benefit, if this was reported to Sykes as soon as you noted the problem, so that further cleaning could have taken place.
5) The cleaning team are directed to enter the property at 10am on the day of guest departures in accordance with the terms of the holiday let. We are sorry you found their arrival “stressful” but we hope you understand that the turnaround time for cleaning and preparing the property for the next guests is very limited.
Despite your difficulties we do hope that you enjoyed your stay in Alnmouth and found other aspects of the house (including the substantial welcome pack) to your satisfaction.
Mr. & Mrs. McBride (owners)
Property Owner
