“Hi. Firstly, we want to say that we found Sarah to be helpful and caring in her communications.”
Thank you. We arrived at the property after a long drive and we blown away by the view from the terrace. Really spectacular. Just in brief though, there were a few things that we wanted to raise.
We felt there could've been more of a welcome at the cottage. A small welcome note or at least instructions on where to find local information. The local information "folder" was tucked away on a shelf which was concealed by the sofa. We had to hunt for it. And in it, well, not much information. Not up to date anyway. There was a draw stuffed full of every flyer in existence from the local area, but that was a bit daunting so we left it. So aside from a lovely (brief) conversation with Sarah, as we had taken a wrong turn on arrival, we we relived to arrive but it all felt a bit "cold" and unwelcoming in the cabin.
Practical things.
There were dirty towels left of the back of one of the bedroom doors and a half drunk bottle of mineral water left on the top bunk (which was not made up with fresh linen - or any linen). In these paranoid COVID times, this isn't fantastic. So we were missing one set of bed linen. When you pay for an entire cabin, even if it sleeps 8 and there are only 7 of you, you should be given the option to use all of the beds. My daughter was feeling poorly on the first night, so I opted to sleep in the bunk room with her, which meant taking the linen off a twin bed and making up the top bunk myself.
The cold tap in the bath didn't work but this was resolved the next morning by John, so thank you.
We are coffee drinkers and were sad to find no way of brewing a coffee on our first morning. We used the teapot and a tea strainer in the end. Also in the kitchen, no scissors, no spare tea towels (aside from the one that was there) that we could find and no slice/spatular for the frying pan (only bar b q ones which were huge). Paying over £2000 for the week, I think basic kitchen items should be included.
Now, we didn't watch much of it, but with no Wifi, our daughter watched a little TV. Someone before us had obviously been a little overzealous with the volume control, as the speaker is shot. The sound is scratchy and muffled. The batteries in the remote were also on the blink which was a bit of an annoyance. Again, something you'd think wouldn't be an issue in a venue with this price tag.
The walk down to the beach is about 15/20 mins, but the walk back up is a schlep (up very steep hills), it took me (on my own) more like half an hour or so, so be warned with little ones. If you're going to the beach every day, you'd really need to use the car if you've got young children. It was further than we'd thought. If you're a dog owner, the only place they can run off the lead is the beach. You are surrounded by sheep. So this is something to bear in mind.
This list seems pernickety, but it's only because we are listing everything we can think of to try to be helpful to others who may want to book. Without question this property delivers on an absolutely fantastic view and it's very spacious inside. It's the little things we felt were lacking. I think when you own a place like this, you perhaps rely on customers being so blown away by the view, that you perhaps feel the finer points don't matter. But we felt they did matter. And we missed them. Thanks though, the view is indeed breath taking.