Frozen Cottage. Refund rights?
Discussion
Wacky Racer said:
We have just returned from a National trust) isolated cottage near Stroud, on the edge of the Cotswolds, a dog friendly one. (We don't have dogs)
On arrival there was a definite "doggy" pongl, the suite was covered in white dog hairs, and the "Henry" hoover attachment was full of them.
We had to fumigate the living room with a full can of neutral air freshener.
Fortunately, the rest of the place was spotless.
We complained and am waiting to here from them.( Not bothered about compo, just an apology)
1) We will never book a dog friendly cottage again......(Been going over 30 years twice a year)
2) PLEASE dog owners, do not allow your doggies on the furniture, with dirty wet paws etc, think of other guests.
Rant over.
Suprised you even considered a pet friendly place if you are a non pet owner.On arrival there was a definite "doggy" pongl, the suite was covered in white dog hairs, and the "Henry" hoover attachment was full of them.
We had to fumigate the living room with a full can of neutral air freshener.
Fortunately, the rest of the place was spotless.
We complained and am waiting to here from them.( Not bothered about compo, just an apology)
1) We will never book a dog friendly cottage again......(Been going over 30 years twice a year)
2) PLEASE dog owners, do not allow your doggies on the furniture, with dirty wet paws etc, think of other guests.
Rant over.
eliot said:
Wacky Racer said:
We have just returned from a National trust) isolated cottage near Stroud, on the edge of the Cotswolds, a dog friendly one. (We don't have dogs)
On arrival there was a definite "doggy" pongl, the suite was covered in white dog hairs, and the "Henry" hoover attachment was full of them.
We had to fumigate the living room with a full can of neutral air freshener.
Fortunately, the rest of the place was spotless.
We complained and am waiting to here from them.( Not bothered about compo, just an apology)
1) We will never book a dog friendly cottage again......(Been going over 30 years twice a year)
2) PLEASE dog owners, do not allow your doggies on the furniture, with dirty wet paws etc, think of other guests.
Rant over.
Suprised you even considered a pet friendly place if you are a non pet owner.On arrival there was a definite "doggy" pongl, the suite was covered in white dog hairs, and the "Henry" hoover attachment was full of them.
We had to fumigate the living room with a full can of neutral air freshener.
Fortunately, the rest of the place was spotless.
We complained and am waiting to here from them.( Not bothered about compo, just an apology)
1) We will never book a dog friendly cottage again......(Been going over 30 years twice a year)
2) PLEASE dog owners, do not allow your doggies on the furniture, with dirty wet paws etc, think of other guests.
Rant over.
Our properties are all welcome pets and about 60% of our guests bring dogs. We have a strict policy of no pets in bedrooms, on furniture etc but in reality how do you police it.
We are not dog owners so are very conscious of any pet smells.
All the properties designed to make it easy to eradicate doggy smells and we charge dog owners an additional £35 per pet (max of 2 pets) which covers the extra clean time.
In 5 years we have had nobody complain of doggy smells.
PositronicRay said:
That sounds more than reasonable. Everyone knows crap happens, it's how it's dealt with that makes the difference.
Most people only get about 4 weeks holiday a year. Their holiday time is valuable. As the owner, when you accept a booking, you are taking o the responsibility that if anything that you have control of goes wrong, it is your responsibility to ensure the holidaymaker is happy.
We are happy to take your money when nothing goes wrong so can afford to put things right when they do.
We've been lucky in that we've not suffered anyone "trying it on" But we have heard it t does go on. The nearest we got to an issue was that one guest complained that "springs were coming through the bed". On inspection, we found there were no springs coming through but we immediately replaced with a new mattress as we felt the original one was firm.
Then we had a couple who broke a bed by "lying on it". It was almost a new bed and the Mrs and I had given the bed a good test to make sure it was up to anything that 2 people could get up to in a bed and it didn't break it so not sure what they could have done. In any case, the bed was under guarantee and changed same day.
Some owners are in holiday letting just for the money. They give the minimum and expect you to put up with poor facilities. We really enjoy making people happy on their holiday and the good feedback we get.
Out lowest rating on Revoo is 9.6 out of 10 and hate it when we get a guest who says "perfect, couldn't be better 7/10". If we've given you less than a 10/10 service, we've failed.
We also make good money out of it as well but that's a bonus.
The other type of review we hate to get is "lovely cottage, perfect location, weather crap and it was a long way to travel from home 5/10". You are being asked to review the cottage, not your holiday or aspects we have no control over.
greygoose said:
That's what I thought, food won't go off in that time (particularly in a cold house....). £100 of logs would buy two builders bags full here too, if you are buying from a garage then they are a rip off though. I live in an old house too, if it has been empty for a while then it does take a while to heat up.
Our house is also old 450 years old and does take an age to heat back up. We buy in bulk also in builders bags and is very cheap compared to buying from a garage supermarket.I hope the OP does get some sort of refund as you pay for a relaxing break away not a load of niggle problems.
As a holiday cottage owner I'd take the same approach as Pistom. If it can't be sorted quickly then a full refund would be on offer.
I'm surprised the owner didn't know the boiler wasn't working, and as for the property manager not knowing about the electrics, or caring by the sound of it, he sounds a waste of money. He should have supplied logs too, if the guest had wanted to stay.
I wonder whether the electric heaters have been PA tested.
£900 for a 2 bed? I'll have to put my prices up
I'm surprised the owner didn't know the boiler wasn't working, and as for the property manager not knowing about the electrics, or caring by the sound of it, he sounds a waste of money. He should have supplied logs too, if the guest had wanted to stay.
I wonder whether the electric heaters have been PA tested.
£900 for a 2 bed? I'll have to put my prices up
Sticks. said:
As a holiday cottage owner I'd take the same approach as Pistom. If it can't be sorted quickly then a full refund would be on offer.
£900 for a 2 bed? I'll have to put my prices up
It is the run up to Christmas. Our 1 beds in North Wales went for £1300 this year and the last remaining one was booked yesterday for 2018 for £1550. £900 for a 2 bed? I'll have to put my prices up
Forest Holidays are building a site nearby and they are charging over £2K for similar accommodation that's on a holiday camp, not set in its own grounds like ours are.
At these prices, you can see we have a vested interest in making sure that boilers work and if they don't, we have a proper plan B so the guest is only inconvenienced minimally.
If plan B fails, they get properly compensated.
dxg said:
A little while back we had a cottage in the middle of nowhere (south wales) from under the thatch.
A black cat appeared from nowhere, plonked itself down in the kitchen and stared at the drawer where it turned out the cat treats were stored.
It then slept on the sofa.
And repeated this most days.
I rather suspect it belonged to the cottage owner.
But it was an awesome addition!
Similar happened to us in an aparthotel in ibiza, a black cat wandered in to our room, and it absolutely loved being petted, the thing moved in for the remainder of the holiday, was sad to leave it behind, holidaycat was lovely.A black cat appeared from nowhere, plonked itself down in the kitchen and stared at the drawer where it turned out the cat treats were stored.
It then slept on the sofa.
And repeated this most days.
I rather suspect it belonged to the cottage owner.
But it was an awesome addition!
Douglas Quaid said:
How did the food go off in 2 hrs? You’re lying aren’t you?
And therein lies the problem; if you have a genuine complaint don't try and embellish it because it reduces the validity of the genuine issue(s). Two hours to find a consumer unit in a cottage must be some sort of record
We booked a villa in Spain during the summer holidays, on arrival there was an issue with the electrics which meant the main RCD kept tripping if we had the aircon on. Normally this wouldn't be a massive issue except it was during a heatwave and was still 35 overnight. It also meant we couldn't use the oven (could have worked round this).
I contacted the owner who was aware of the problem. It was somewhat disappointing he was aware but had not thought to warn us prior to arrival, but equally he said another families had stayed and not found it a problem (tbf were it not for the exceptionally high temp we could have managed). We stayed one night before booking a hotel for the rest of our holiday, no mean feat in August. It meant we stayed in a different area and cost us a bit more.
However, the owner was understanding and gave a full refund with no arguement.
We have stayed in a fair few holiday lets usually booked through homeaway and, with the exception of this one, found them to be nice and good value. It's always a bit a of gamble though, none of the sites offer any real protection, they are best viewed as an advertising platform like Autotrader.
I contacted the owner who was aware of the problem. It was somewhat disappointing he was aware but had not thought to warn us prior to arrival, but equally he said another families had stayed and not found it a problem (tbf were it not for the exceptionally high temp we could have managed). We stayed one night before booking a hotel for the rest of our holiday, no mean feat in August. It meant we stayed in a different area and cost us a bit more.
However, the owner was understanding and gave a full refund with no arguement.
We have stayed in a fair few holiday lets usually booked through homeaway and, with the exception of this one, found them to be nice and good value. It's always a bit a of gamble though, none of the sites offer any real protection, they are best viewed as an advertising platform like Autotrader.
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