“Nice cottage but on arrival the front garden had filled rubbish bin liners left in front entrance to property.”
. This was Christmas Eve, so no likelihood for it being removed.
The Woodburner was left unchecked and found to have wet cloths and newspapers, wet wood, and rubbish left in it with water in the bottom,leaving it inoperable and and eyesore.
The owner was contacted on Christmas Day in the Evening as it was very cold, and adjusted the central heating system and offered a refund..At no point did the owner apologise for all the problems we had with this situation..
Our cottage Christmas experience was totally ruined… Since arriving home and contacting Sykes, I regret I am no further forward …
I feel that your customer care policy is extremely
Lack Lustre and the problem has yet to be resolved…!
Thank you for your feedback, I am sorry your stay did not meet your expectations. However I feel I must address several key points you have omitted.
As a gesture of good will I called you the day before your check in and explained that the cottage was vacant and therefore If you wanted to check in early I had no objections especially as it would be Christmas Eve. You explained our daughter was home from the Middle East and is always cold. We spoke at length regarding the cottage and how equipped it was along with discussing where to visit and what to do, I explained there is a wood burner and heating which you can control in the cottage.
You arrived on 24th December and reported no issues with the wood burning stove or indeed the temperature in the cottage which was thermostatically set to a comfortable temperature.
At 5pm on Christmas Day I received an irate and abusive call from a lady I believe may have been your daughter stating there was an issue with the wood burning stove. I apologised profusely for the alleged issues with the stove and explained that she could increase the temperature in the cottage using the thermostat she said she "didn't want to touch it". The temperature in the cottage was the same on Christmas Day as it had been on Christmas Eve,
You state at "at no point did the owner apologise" this is untrue. I apologised several times throughout the call and offered a refund as recompense.
Additionally on check out day you were still in the property 2 hours after leaving time when the housekeeping team arrived.
With regards to the rubbish I also explained that Alston have a no bin system in operation and therefore rubbish is collected by means of a Kerb side bag collection which would account for a bag being present in the garden.
Property Owner
