Flyer11861711975
September 2020
The worst experience dealing with a cottage holiday company ever. Do not use this company.
In early July I booked Penwarne Lodge for a week in mid August. I'll be honest - I read most of the reviews that were visible when I booked, but once I had gone through the booking system and paid my deposit I read a few more down the list
and realised that it appeared the property had quite a damp problem. Even reviews from August last year in the height of summer. Within 5 minutes of booking I tried to call and ask for clarification that this matter had been dealt with and that the damp was no longer an issue this summer. I couldn’t get through on the phone so I e-mailed. My letter effectively asked for reassurance that the owners have satisfactorily addressed this issue for this season, .Both myself and my daughter have asthma so I explained that I was understandably a little concerned as to the extent of the damp problem – clearly it is not what you want for your cottage holiday. I never heard anything at all.
Eventually I received an e-mail asking for full payment. I wrote back and said that I would like a response to my query before paying the outstanding about (the total was around £1260 for a two bed cottage in August).
I received the following
I can confirm this was fed back to the owner who advised it would be recified, however I will try and get full confirmation of this for you.
I heard nothing else, so assumed that this problem had indeed been rectified and paid the outstanding amount.
When we arrived at the lodge it was apparent that this had not been dealt with at all. One of the bedrooms upstairs that my children were meant to be sleeping in had an overwhelming musty smell. Really horrible. In the master bedroom there were damp patches on the walls around two of the windows, there was a damp smell but worst of all there were black damp spores growing on the wall which I could wipe off with my finger. (I have taken photos and video).
Again couldn’t get through to the office on the phone so I wrote an e-amil the following morning to complain.
The manager of the building came to see us and was very understanding and sympathetic. He agreed about the smell and damp and offered to send a cleaner in the following day.
The cleaner cleaned the spores from the wall and freshened the smell in the children's bedroom. This rectified the smell in the room for a couple of days, but it started to return after that. I didn't ask for the cleaner again as quite frankly I was frustrated that I had to be sorting this out on my holiday. So we spent more time out of the house as it was so smelly inside it. The children's hair stank of mustiness when they woke every morning and our clothes were still carrying the smell on our return home. It is a beautiful house, gorgeously fitted and in a wonderful location but really, I can't ignore the fact that this issue created real blight on our stay.
I am particularly annoyed that I gave this company every opportunity to be honest with me from the moment of booking and taking my deposit. If I had been told that the house still had a damp issue I would have requested to book a different property. It's as simple as that. Instead I was never given the chance. As I explained in my original e-mail, myself and my daughter have asthma and a damp property would never have been an option for us.
I paid £1260 for a week here. I wouldn't tolerate damp and mustiness in my own house - I certainly don't expect pay to stay in one with this issue.
I had a call from the company the day after the cleaner had been asking if she could ‘close the case’. I said no and that I would be in touch with the company once I returned. I have written 4 e-mails and have not received any comment or contact from this company.
Unless you want to be treated like this I strongly advise that you don’t book your holiday with either Sykes Cottages who own Cornish Cottage Holidays.