“We had booked both Rose Suite and Emerald Suite for our family.”
We were informed by email after we had left for the day on Tuesday that someone would be visiting Emerald Suite whilst we were out. The person also visited Rose suite, though we don't know why. They left both properties unlocked, leaving our valuables including phones, Nintendo Switch and jewellery unsecured. The bolts on the bathroom door are unsuitable for a property that is being let. Our seven year old locked herself in the bathroom and if it wasn't for the odd arrangement with the laundry room we would have had to break the door down to get her out. Her father was able to crawl through the from the laundry room and unlock the door. The electric meter in Emerald Suite began beeping in the middle of the night and kept my sister-in-law awake. The reason, it was nearly out of electricity and we had to call the owner to get it topped up the following day. Really not acceptable. The lock on the door to Emerald Suite failed and the door couldn't be opened from the inside. Fortunately we were able to slide the key under the door, open it from the outside and my husband made a repair to the lock. A screw had fallen out and had to be replaced. Again, not acceptable, where is the maintenance. The batteries ran out in the lock to the main front door on Friday 20th. Had we not had a family member still in the apartment we would have been completely locked out. There were only two batteries in the green basket in Rose Suite and none in the basket in Emerald Suite. So although we were able to get the lock working it was intermittent by Saturday morning. We left a note for the cleaner informing them the batteries to the front door needed replacing. The small stuff: The kitchen was well equipped but lacking in food prep space and the dining table was a bit tight on space. The door to the laundry was extremely heavy and made loading and unloading the washer difficult. The green chair on the top of the landing looks very nice but is an accident waiting to happen where young children are concerned. We moved it to the living room. The property was clean and reasonably comfortable and of course very well located. It was a real shame that from a maintenance perspective the apartment did not meet expectation. By the Friday when the front door locking device failed it began to feel like we were staying in Fawlty Towers. Had it not been for a litany of near disasters with door locks and what felt like an intruder leaving our apartments unlocked we may well have booked again for later in the year but now I'm not so sure.
Dear Mrs Cullingan
First of all, we wanted to thank you for your review. As you can appreciate, our businesses success is based on the feedback of our Guests. When we read your comments, we were extremely saddened to hear you've experienced so many frustrations during your stay. We wanted to reply to your points in return.
* Rose Suite bathroom lock: we were advised when we set up the Apartments as Holiday Lets to have locks on each bathroom door, to ensure Guest privacy. We're sorry your son struggled to open the lock and we're relieved your husband was able to find a way in. It must have been very worrying for you all. If you have any suggestions for which lock you think would be better, please let us know, we're always looking for ways to improve and ensure our Guests satisfaction.
* Rose Suite - laundry room: the door to the laundry is very difficult to operate. We had asked Building Regulations if we could change this door but, unfortunately, the door was originally a Fire Door, so we would only be able to replace it with another Fire Door, which would mean we had the same problem. Our Fire Inspector also advised due to the room housing the washer/dryer, it needed to remain a Fire Door to ensure Guests safety in case of an electrical fire. We did question this because the small doors from the bathroom into the laundry room aren't fire doors. Again, it came down to replacing like for like.
* Emerald Suite - Electricity Meter: When your family member contacted us about the Electrical Meter, we did explain that when we purchased the property, all of the meters were on Pay As You Go. As you have seen, we have had the meter in Emerald Suite changed to a Smart Meter, however, our Utilities company have been unable to convert the electricity to a Credit Meter due to technical difficulties with the meter itself. They need to come and replace the whole meter. We're sorry your sister in law was awoken by the beeping noise from the meter, when we spoke to them, they hadn't informed us of this. I can appreciate this must have been frustrating. We have reminded our Cleaners to check the meter on every change over to ensure this does not happen again, until we're able to have the Smart Meter replaced.
* Communal Front Door - The front door lock batteries were replaced 3 weeks ago, so thank you for replacing them, as they really shouldn't have failed so quickly. Again, this must have been frustrating. We have reported this to Yale Smart Locks and will consider changing the lock to something more practical, as we would not want this to happen again.
* Emerald/Rose Suite - we required access to Emerald Suite, as a previous Guest had advised there was an issue with the mattress. Our bed supplier was only able to visit to inspect the bed on a week day, unfortunately. I can personally assure you, they were only given the code for Emerald's key safe and therefore would not have been able to access Rose. If you could provide some more details about why you thought someone had been in Rose Suite, I would appreciate it so I can investigate this further. I understand the door was open. The security of our Guests and our property is of paramount importance and we change the codes to the key safes to ensure this. Your family member did not inform us when they called to advise of the problem with the meter, that the front door had been left open by the bed supplier. We have raised this concern with the bed supplier and await their reply.
* Rose Suite - green accent chair: thank you for moving this. We have four children ourselves and again the safety of all of our Guests is of paramount importance to us. This has not been raised as an issue previously, so we will take this forward.
* Emerald Suite - front door lock: we had not been informed the lock had failed, of course we would have organised for our Maintenance Team to visit the property to rectify this issue. I can assure you this has been addressed.
We wanted to apologies again for the frustrations you encountered and how you were left feeling like you were staying in Faulty Towers. We opened the Apartments as Holiday Let's in May and are learning every day. We appreciate you taking the time to share your comments, feedback and suggestions and can assure you we are addressing each point.
Property Owner
