Very Close Encounters
Review Submitted: November 19, 2009
Date of Stay: October 2009
The cottage is in fact annexed to the owner's home and therefore not very private. The main bedroom is next to the owner's outside sitting room and so their music (opera) and TV (sport) is usually quite audible to the guests, though is usually finished by 10 p.m.
The cottage is clean enough thanks to the very good maid, Juanita. Basics: the electricals are old, the kitchen is under equipped with utencils and the sink blocks and empties very slowly, tho' the oven is ok and there is a coffee machine. The showers are poor, the bed linen and towels quite old, though clean.
The proximatey to Mullins beach is good: 10 minute walk; security is good with electric gates (guests are given a remote to open them).
There is parking on site.
Unfortunately, there is no private telephone. The cottage phone is an extension of the owner's and on several occasions our respectible, middle-aged Bajan friends got short shrift from Karin for making a polite daytime call to us. And we sometimes did not get messages left for us.
Karin was friendly and often popped in, which surprised us on occasion!
The washing machine was freely avaiable which was good.
The pool was clean and a reasonable size, with a couple of sun loungers, a table and umbrella, tho' immediately in front of Karin's house.
Karin will happily recommend restarants and places of interest.
The House Rules were rather alarming: 'No visitors without prior permission' from Karin and feeding the birds in your garden was 'strictly forbidden'.
We have been visiting the island for 35 years and know it very well.
We would most certainly not describe the cottage as Luxurious and would only recommend it to friends on a tight budget who were happy with fairly basic accomodation.
Owner's Response: This is a disappointing and unfair review. At no time was any reference made by the reviewers during their stay to any of the alleged "shortcomings" they now report. Indeed their friend on the island checked out the property for them in advance! They were happy to accept generous hospitality from us including evening drinks, a steak dinner as well as a birthday lunch - though such gestures merit no mention. We permit the use of our telephone and though not a hotel are always prepared to pass on messages - not, however, from the arrogant woman who "instructed" that Simon be told to phone her back without so much as a "please" or "thank you". That apparently she thought she was speaking to a maid makes the such rudeness worse. These guests used the proprietor's soap powder for their sometimes twice daily washing without consent nor did they replace it on departure. White towels were badly stained with hair dye - and this was denied : perhaps this is the reason for the unfair review. As to music and TV "noise" we play these quietly and respect the privacy of our guests. In 15 years of sharing the property with guests this is the first time that we have had such an inaccurate and critical report. We go out of our way to make our guests welcome and comfortable. We are frequently told that our rates are very fair even too modest for such a location. These guests seem to want Sandy Lane facilities at our rates. That , of course, is unreasonable. We are content that we offer a splendid holiday location for a fair price and, frankly, hundreds of repeat guests can't be wrong! It is unfortunate that these guests failed to express their views in person to us when any reasonable issue could have been addressed. Incidentally as to "House Rules" these are almost non-existent but in common with most such lets we cannot allow guests to bring in friends willy-nilly to use gardens , pool etc though are prepared to accommodate reasonable requests in that respect. Equally feeding of birds is not encouraged as in a tropical environment it attracts stray cats and rodents etc. The "rule" is to keep things pleasant for our guests. To sum up we are extremely disappointed with this review which in 15 years is a first of its nature. Most vexing, however, is that all was friendly, indeed "sweetness and light" during the visit and we parted most amicably with grateful thanks all round - at no time was there even a hint of the dissatisfaction expressed in this upsetting review.
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