“Overall, we had a very nice holiday.”
The house is well-situated: close enough to Dartmouth so that you drive down in a few minutes, but also on foot - we walked down to the town almost every day. Also, the Sainsbury's superstore is around the corner, but the house itself is tucked away in a quiet farm lane, so we weren't disturbed by any traffic noise. The dining area, patio and master bedroom offer a lovely view over the fields. But: although the house itself has potential, it would need a lot of love to really feel like a home away from home. The decor is pretty bare and soulless, and the living-room is tiny; it was set up in a way that didn't allow all 6 of us to watch TV together. We had to move some of the furniture to make it possible for 5 to watch. The bedrooms were more generous, enough space for 6, but if you promote a house for 6, these people should be able to sit together comfortably in the living-room. The mattresses in the master bedroom were horrible: much too soft, AND they squeaked loudly every time my husband or I moved. VERY awkward, plus it disturbed our sleep. Please, get new, quiet ones!! That was, for me, the major drawback of this house!! Also, like many cottages made out of old barns, the house is sound-sensitive - you can hear every step someone takes above, every softest tread on the stairs. We didn't have young kids with us, but for people who do, this must be difficult. In the single bed bedroom there is almost no WiFi reception.
The second sitting room (across the hall) doesn't help with that, sadly. A lot of the lamps didn't work so we had to hunt down functioning lamps for everyone to have a bedside light for reading. The property was reasonably clean, but there's room for improvement. Lots of dust in corners. In the master bathroom one of the two shelves was coming lose and slanting to one side so you couldn't put anything there. No rails and only one hook for towels. The washing-machine was fine, however the dryer was absolutely filthy and unusable. The lint filter hadn't been cleaned and was plastered not only with lint but matted with, apparently, dog hair, and the rubber rim was mouldy. Disgusting. That was another real drawback, having to dry laundry for 6 people without a dryer, in partly very wet weather! As is the case in many holiday cottages, the spray arms in the dishwasher were clogged with scale; I had to clean it myself in order to get clean dishes. The fridges both were in urgent need of defrosting - in one of them, we had to literally hack away thick sheets of ice before we could close its door properly. And speaking of doors: locking the door when leaving the house was a nightmare every single time because of the door lock. It was just shot! You had to use brute force and turn and rattle the key in juuust such a way and press hard against the door to be able to lock it. I began to dread the act of locking the door! The same, though not quite as bad, with the back/patio door.
Like the inside, the outside of the property would greatly benefit from some loving hand – a minimum of a garden-like feeling would improve everything, instead it's just concrete and gravel and an empty piece of lawn. Shame, because the house could be really great and welcoming if someone took a little more trouble with it. We still loved out stay because Dartmouth and the South Hams are so lovely, took lots of walks om the coastal paths, saw the Castle, Coleton Fishacre, drove up to Dartmoor. It's situated brilliantly and nice to have a private parking space, but as a house, not the the best one we stayed in.
Thank you for your detailed feedback. We appreciate your comments. All the issues have been addressed and rectified (Dryer, bed, dishwasher, locks, lamps etc. We have spoken to The Property checker who visits between handovers as these should have been picked up.
However its sound like you enjoyed your holiday and made the most of the area.
Property Owner