Guesthoo's property marketed as: Spacious House, Sea Views Opposite Beach, Newquay.
I will never book any of Guesthoo's properties again.
The photos of this one are very professional; so much so that the house itself is a disappointment. I can't say that they lie but the house is very tired-looking and in need of a serious upgrade or at least a coat of paint.
To be fair, the beds were comfortable and we slept well and the towels were soft and fluffy, but the pillows were horrible with a cheap, synthetic filling.
We are 4 pensioners and were there for just 3 nights (2 full days) in mid-May when it was very cold. We arrived around 5:3opm and the heating wasn't working, one of the toilets was draining very slowly and we couldn't get the dishwasher working. We hunted high and low for instructions with no luck. The next day I contacted Guesthoo who suggested we go and buy a plunger and sort out the toilet ourselves! I declined. They said they would try to get the housekeeper out to sort the problems. We eventually got the dishwasher to work but waited in all day and an engineer finally arrived about 6pm. That was 1 of our 2 full days wasted.
The following day I opened the boiler cupboard to find inside it, a folder with instructions for the heating and some other appliances although none for the dishwasher. There was also a large pile of letters. Some were open and dated back to 2019. The problem with this wasn't just that the instructions folder was hidden, but paper in an enclosed cupboard with a boiler is a fire risk and illegal in a holiday let; they had put our lives at risk! There were also no emergergency exit signage or instructions. When I suggested to Guesthoo that some compensation for the dreadful first 24 hours was in order, the answer was a resounding "no". They even tried to suggest that the problems were of our making, saying that because we didn't report the blocked loo until the day after we arrived, it wasn't unreasonable to assume that we had caused it! We had arrived after 5:30pm and no-one used that loo until bedtime; how were we to know they were contactable that late! They also said that the heating was fine and hinted that it was our fault that we couldn't work it. Wrong; it was out of order and failed to work the day we left. As far as the dishwasher is concerned, they told us to turn it on, select the program and press start. How trite, condescending and patronising! Every make of dishwasher is different and none of us had come across this one before.
We also couldn't get the radio or the TV remote working. I could go on.
Response to Guesthoo (who are economic with the truth).
We arrived in the evening and assumed you would not be contactable then. I tried to phone you the next morning on the reservations and emergency numbers, many times, even using my friends phones, but with no success.
I sent my message at 11.30, it took you 3 hours to respond. When you did, you said "is [the loo] completely blocked or just draining very slowly? If it's only slow to drain, if possible would you mind puchasing a simple plunger locally to see if that helps clear it? We will reimburse you...." I said it was draining slowly so you KNEW what the problem was and yes, you DID ask us to solve it. You say you suggested it as a quick solution, but how quick a solution is it to ask a person who doesn't know the area, to go in search of plunger? Quicker to send someone round, especially since I had advised you of the other issues at the same time. But yes, far less convenient FOR YOU. We only had 3 nights (2 days) and had never been to Newquay; to ask us to spend our limited time solving YOUR problem was outrageous!
Heating: you asked me to turn up the dial on the display and send a photo of it. I did, but it didn't work. If it was just a case of adjusting the timer, why did the contractor not show us how to do it?
Dishwasher: you said "1 Turn the dishwasher on 2 Select a cycle 3 Load the dishwasher tablet 4 shut the door firmly - it should then begin the cycle". Really? I had never thought of that!!!! We did not claim it was fauly, just that there were no instructions. If we had the make/model number we could have googled it. Clearly you had never seen this dishwasher or its various programmes/dials etc, but if the instructions book had been there we could have started it easily. We aren't idiots and we all own dishwashers. You say you gave us instructions that helped start it. Wrong; one of us started it, by accident, in spite of your instructions.
You say we were eating in that night; actually, when you said Stefan was coming I said "instead of going out to eat we will eat in and wait for Stefan".
You say the papers in the boiler cupboard were removed immediately I reported it - yes, BY ME! It was a fire safety hazard. Storing paperwork in a boiler cupboard in a holiday rental home is ILLEGAL and by doing so, you put our lives at risk!
All the above quotes come directly from our message exchanges via Booking.com