“Fairholme is a lovely property, albeit a bit quirky with the lounge upstairs, and we enjoyed our stay although we did have a few general issues, some down to maintenance and others caretaking issues.”
The front entrance door and area where the key safe is sighted, is disgraceful. It’s covered in leaves and debris and obviously hasn’t seen a broom for quite some time and I wouldn’t suggest you wipe your feet on the mat, unless you were leaving!
The cloakroom in the entrance hall was the only one with a full toilet roll and liquid soap. The other 2 bathrooms did not have soap, and only part rolls. These are not luxury items they are a necessity especially when we are all being told constantly to wash our hands and we certainly didn’t expect to have to go out and buy toilet roll.
We arrived late afternoon, the temperature was 17degs which is very unusual for end of March so first thing to do was let some fresh air in as the heat was quite overpowering especially in the conservatory.
Only 1 window would open, with a little force, and we struggled to find the key to open the door. After much searching we did eventually, find it on the same keyring as the kitchen door key in the kitchen door lock!!
Two of the roof blinds would not close but fortunately the wind open/close roof vent worked fine.
At 5.00pm the heating came on and not knowing anything about the wi-fi system controlling it, other than that it requires a pin number, we rang Sykes. The lady answering the phone spoke to the local agent and we were told that someone would call around that evening and adjust it for us.
Nobody came around or contacted us during our stay but it was obviously adjusted magically in the ether as it didn’t come on again that evening and then only for an hour in the morning, when it was cold, and an hour in the evening. In the master bedroom the heated towel rail burst into life every now and again but never long enough to dry wet towels or warm the bathroom up.
The kitchen is very nice although the centre island does take up much of the room but it has an abundance of cups/plates etc, everything you need to cook a meal. Unfortunately the dishwasher had run out of salt and rinse aid so there was a bit of a spicy smell when the door was opened and sadly there was not a coffee machine of any sort despite one being shown in the photos on line.
Whilst we take care of anywhere we stay, we also think that having a half decent vacuum cleaner would help. The vacuum supplied was next to useless; although it did try its best.
There wasn’t a Welcome pack either, a packet of teabags, coffee, a few biscuits and a carton of milk would have been most welcome and something we’ve come to expect.
We have been self-catering for years so we do appreciate that nowhere is ever perfect but we do expect enough toilet roll and don’t expect to have to strip the bed linen off the bed especially when pillows and mattresses can leave a lot to be desired. In this case the duvet in the master room has most certainly seen better days! And yes we appreciate COVID is responsible for a lot of extra work but there is a limit.
In summary, we think a welcome pack, with info about the local area, places to visit etc as well as leaving the info about the kitchen appliances to hand would not go amiss. We appreciate that the owners need to provide this, but perhaps a little nudge in their direction might be helpful.
