“We have stayed at the Curious Orange before (Approx.”
5 years ago) and it was completely perfect in every way. So much so we thought when visiting the lakes, we would not go anywhere else. This time around however it was an incredibly disappointing stay.
The day of our arrival at around lunchtime we received a call from the owner advising that there was a problem with the heating/hot water. We were already halfway to the Curious Orange by this time. The Owner advised that there is an immersion heater (for hot water), and he would arrange extra logs for the stove and ensure there were fan heaters. He advised that the plumber was waiting for a part, but it was due to be in and done on the Tuesday. As we were already halfway there, and that it would be sorted by Tuesday (Thus only really affecting Sunday & Monday) this would be ok.
We arrived as planned after 4pm on Saturday. When we arrived, we tried to light the fire (it was pretty chilly as the central heating was not working). There were two fan heaters at the property, but they were noisy and intrusive so once the stove was warming up, they were switched off.
On Sunday – Our first full day we did, as many would and went for a walk. We had booked into a nearby pub for evening meal and went for a shower upon our return. One of us had a shower, which went stone cold halfway through and there was not enough hot water for the second person to shower.
We looked at the immersion tank and it is a half sized one – explaining the minimal amount of hot water available. We planned Monday around the inability for both of us to have a shower as we were led to believe it would be fixed by Tuesday. Sadly, Tuesday came and went with no word from a plumber or the owner. We contacted the owner on Wednesday to advise that the issues remain, and no plumber had been on Tuesday. At 5.30pm on Wednesday a plumber turned up unexpected and we had to postpone our table reservation for that evening to accommodate the plumber. Sadly, something else was wrong and he was unable to fix there and then – We explained that we could not both have a shower on the same day due to the tiny immersion tank and he tried a workaround however, this did not change anything. The plumber advised he would be back Thursday afternoon at around 12. Sadly, Thursday also came and went with no word from a plumber or the owner, and we were still unable to both have a shower on the same day.
The plumber finally fixed the heating and hot water at around 5pm on Friday evening. We both showered and went for dinner for the first… and last time of our holiday as we were leaving the following morning.
In summary, we could not both shower/bath each day for the entirety of our holiday, the fan heaters were awfully noisy so our choice for the week was either buying significant amounts of logs or listening to noisy fan heaters.
Our stay became a frustrating, more costly than expected, un-showered/bathed stop, whilst attending unannounced tradesmen visits.
Sadly, despite speaking to the owner on a few occasions, no offer of a reduction for our current stay or voucher toward our next stay was offered and due to the lack of care & concern from the owner regarding the significant inconvenience we experienced we will not return to the Curious Orange.
Thank you for your very informative feedback. During your stay we made sure we proactively kept you informed of power issues and liaised with you to get this corrected. We were very sorry you felt the way you did and gave you a basket of goodies for your last night as you will remember.
We are a little confused with this feedback though because you messaged me at the end of your stay to say that you were looking forward to coming back many times in the future?
Property Owner
