“As I entered the cottage it was the smell I noticed at first.”
Strange, not horrible, not old, not fresh and clean either. I was glad I brought with me my own plug in air fresheners.
Having three windows, the downstairs is surprisingly gloomy. The blinds in the photos have gone and replaced by cheap roller blinds, the previous holes for the original blinds remain.
The kitchen is kitted out with everything except a microwave, dishwasher and washing machine. The butler sink minus its plug, has a small plastic washing up bowl. The dinner plates couldn’t fit inside it, washing up became a faff.
The fridge, what a disappointment. It’s only the size of my caravan fridge, except there is the bottom shelf missing on the fridge door, so the milk, orange juice and wine bottles had to go in the bottom, using much needed space. Its temperature ranged from freezing everything inside, the salad and vegetables went in the bin, to only slightly cold. The freezer box hadn’t been defrosted in some time, there was only a narrow gap between the ice build up, so nothing could be stored inside the freezer.
Nice sofa, comfy, although the telly on the wall opposite could be lower to avoid neck strain.
Unfortunately the rug next to the sofa has seen better days and should really go.
The complementary crisps and biscuits were a nice touch.
On the first floor the bedroom is exactly as you see in the photo. In an alcove there is a wooden hanging shelf for clothes.
The bed. At first I thought comfy. After a couple of nights my back was in agony. Excruciating.
The shower is excellent, piping hot water and a good pressure too.
Despite the weather being glorious, the cottage is cold -I wished I had packed a jumper. In the manual it describes how to adjust the heating controls. This didn’t work as the digital control could not connect to the signal it required, consequently the cottage’s heating only came on as programmed for an hour in the morning and an hour late afternoon barely improving the temperature inside.
There are no scratch cards at the cottage for parking. Parking is expensive for all day every day.
There is a phone number guests can use for help during their stay. Who wants to faff on their holiday and wait indoors while strangers fix the problems? Everything should be tip top for every single guest booking.
There is a note and a plastic bag upstairs, left for guests. “To keep our staff safe, please place all used linen and towels in the bag before your departure”. Sorry, safe from what? Vampire blood? COVID doesn’t exist either, if it did the cottage could not accommodate guests. Everyone knows this is a ruse to cut down the cost of cleaning for the owner and is insulting to the paying guests of the cottage.
I was supposed to stay for a week.
Due to everything described above, I returned home early, and disappointed. Now I have to see an osteopath.
Would I recommend April Cottage? No.
We have read your detailed commentary on your stay at our cottage and we’re very disappointed by your criticisms and low score for the cottage. We are sorry you didn’t enjoy your stay. We have a cleaning and laundry team who clean and re-set the cottage after each visit and will pass your comments onto them to investigate. We replaced the original blinds to ensure that the blinds in the cottage were fully health and safety compliant, as is legally required.The property description makes it clear there is no microwave, dishwasher or washing machine at the cottage.The fridge is a standard under the counter fridge - we will pass on your comments and ask our manager to ensure the ice box has been defrosted. We have not experienced neck strain from the TV height or back ache from the mattress on any of our own stays at the cottage, nor have we found the cottage gloomy or smelly. The lounge rug is less than a year old. We apologise that our cleaners overlooked leaving free parking scratch cards out - this should have happened and would have been very easily rectified by a quick phone call to our lovely Whitby manager, who could have posted these through for you. The heating was not set by us for only two hours a day so other guests must have reset this - again our manager could have easily rectified this after a quick phone call from you. We are sorry you didn’t enjoy your stay and do wish you had contacted our manager at the time so at least some of the issues you have raised could have been resolved straight away.
Property Owner
