“We are almost never negative about our stays anywhere and have been coming to Port Isaac for many years.”
We have also stayed at this property before and have always found it comfortable and pleasant. But this time there were minor niggles, and it wouldn't be fair not to mention them. We arrived a little early and the last surviving member (in terms of employment I understand) of the wonderful local John Bray's team was finishing some maintenance task upstairs. Kath noticed a dearth of wine glasses in the cupboard (no comment on who noticed...) and the gentleman very promptly returned with a new set, which was very kind of him. We missed the Welcome Pack that has always greeted us before. Perhaps someone had just forgotten to place it. The main heating control has been changed and is much simpler to use than the previous one. But there is no instruction in the property to tell guests how to use it. Fortunately, the maintenance gentleman had yet to leave and showed us how to do it before he left - again very kind. It probably doesn't matter, and I certainly didn't touch it, but the wi-fii 'booster' box in the bedroom seems to be indicating - by the colour of its light - that it has yet to be 'paired' with the main box in the lounge. It also took me two days to realise that the bin allocated to White Horses had NOT actually been rivetted shut due to some change of procedure, but was actually locked. I eventually realised that it had a cabinet lock on it, presumably to prevent unauthorised access. These panel locks are fairly standard on coaches, buses and electricity cabinets, and I doubt that neighbouring bins use anything different, so I cannot imagine this system preventing access to a guest from a neighbouring property. Once I realised this was the case, I tracked down the unnoticed key hanging by the front door and knew its function. It would have been a bit quicker if some information was available in the introduction document to the property that pointed a guest towards the key and its purpose. It didn't change things though, because the lock was seized solid, possibly with rust. I was devoid of any of my tools that might have allowed me to apply more force to turn it, so I never got it open. On the other hand I might have broken it, so it was perhaps a blessing that I didn't come as 'tooled-up' as in previous years. I did report the lock problem directly to the Port Isaac office and it was noted down, but the issue was never attended to whilst we were there and I had to use another (unnamed) bin for our general rubbish. I hope it didn't belong to another property and someone had just forgotten to put the name of their property on it. I always felt vaguely guilty every time I visited and continued to use it. The Covid panic caused widespread collateral damage that was unexpected. Too much government-enforced inactive time locked in our houses (cells?), and rather too much beer for many of us too, saw some of us gain unwanted weight. I regret now finding myself in that category and found the shower access (always narrow anyway) has become something of a challenge to negotiate. I doubt if very large people will comfortably get through the narrow gap left by this particular type of shower door. I've fitted shower doors and think there must be a better choice of door somewhere that will afford easier access to this shower - just a suggestion. While I'm on that subject, I've also fitted showers too. The wand-type shower head in use works perfectly well - I fitted something similar in my shower - but mine is meant as a supplementary 'mobile' shower. It acts in addition to the fixed overhead main rainfall shower. I'm sure something like that should really have been fitted here. These wands are usually there as an addition to the main shower head, and to assist with access to one's nooks and crannies... gain, just a thought. Sorry to sound critical. We had a good stay and only left a day early because of the weather. But some things could perhaps be improved a little, we think. Our apologies. John & Kath
