“The property’s location is great and on walking through the door everywhere ‘looked’ clean & tidy.”
However on closer inspection it had only been cleaned where you could see - so the carpets (which need a good steam clean) only hoovered around furniture so build up of thick dust in corners of all rooms. Although the pillow cases/sheets/duvet covers were clean they covered a multitude of worn dirty stained pillows, ripped duvets and mattress protectors. We know this as we stayed 2weeks and asked for a change of bed linen that we would change ourselves. Although the bath/toilets/sinks were clean the shower door seal in the bathroom is thick with green mould and the dust build up behind the fixtures had been there a while. The bins in bathrooms had not been cleaned in fact the one in the upstairs washroom needed emptying (horrible) and all needed antibac wiping. There were no cleaning materials under the sink other than a sponge and 2 jay cloths, & only one tea towel ( to last a week) so for the first hour on arrival I had to do a quick clean with bought cleaners (which I’ve left for the next lot of visitors to use, I also bought a pan scrubber) all bedrooms were thick with dust in corners. There was only one pillow per person on the beds, fortunately some of our party brought their own so we were able to share what was available. I found one dust covered pillow flung on the floor of a cupboard in the first floor bedroom and another in a similar state in the downstairs double room wardrobe. Also old dust covered woollen blankets stuffed in the airing cupboard and downstairs wardrobe. Obviously over a couple of days 8 people make a bit of a mess crumb wise and debris wise eg leaves, grass, bit of mud but there wasn’t even a brush to clean up. I did find a dustpan & brush so it was a hands and knees job everyday. The oven was a disgrace - thick with fat/grease and I feel it isn’t up to a visitor to start cleaning a stove. Cushion covers could do with a wash too. Just to add insult to injury one of our party mislaid a precious ring (which was found) so we all set to looking for it which meant pulling chest of drawers away from walls and apart from years’ worth of dust, broken pencils, old lipsticks behind every one, we found a ‘vape’ behind the chest of draws in the children’s bunk bedroom. Oh and lots of lightbulbs need replacing and the ones in the utility room cupboard didn’t fit. It’s such a shame as the house is so lovely, comfortable and spacious for 8 people and we had a really good holiday but it’s a shabby, tired place and just needs a bit of TLC. Perhaps a quick visit from Sykes & housekeeping may do the trick and speak to whoever owns it. I took pics of pillows,duvet & green mouldy shower screen seal and will send them if you want to see them. This isn’t so much a complaint as suggestions to rectify things, and to be honest it wouldn’t cost too much to to put things right. When you spend a few thousand pounds you expect at least the standard you have at home and we’ve stayed in Sykes/Lakelovers properties for many years -this was well below par.
