Dog Friendly Cottages In Arran

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• James - Verified booking

  Property Reference 1109921 Portland, Brodick, Isle of Arran.

  We have just returned from a 2 week stay at the above property and I feel I must air my complaints to you about the state of the place. The kitchen....The oven, dishwasher, microwave and fridge were what can only be described as disgustingly dirty and had, obviously, not had a clean in weeks or even months. The first thing that hit you as you entered the property was the damp smell and how extremely cold it was. I had to deep clean all appliances (except the toaster – which was broken) and proceed to wash every item of crockery, glassware, pots and pans and cutlery and also wash out the cupboards. Lots of the pyrex type plates were badly chipped and we could only use 2 or 3 of them. There were several items that I would have expected to be there which were missing ie tongs, paring knife and a baking tray. A filthy dish cloth and well used sponge /scourer were left on the brown stained sink. The lounge.... Not so bad, apart from the tub chairs both have wobbly legs, the furniture is well used and the soft furnishings were much in need of a good wash/clean. I found bottle tops, peanuts and other detrious in between the cushions on the sofa. Bedroom 1 (with patio doors)...The main bugbear (pardon the pun) was that around a dozen or so wood lice appeared every evening between 8.00 pm and 11.00 pm, which I had to deal with. This left me having difficulty sleeping, wondering if more were going to arrive as I lay there. The corrugated plastic roof over the lean to attached to the bedroom needs fixing as it rattles away with any wind and it is very dirty. The patio furniture below it can only be described as being fit for the tip...disgusting! There are two bedside rugs that are smelly and feel damp to add to the misery. Second double bedroom....Carpet edges have not seen a cleaner for some time, the bed should carry a warning to watch your legs as it has sharp wooden corners and very little room to get from one side of the room to the other. The bedroom window could not be opened and the room smelt quite musty. Single bedroom (with the step down) ....Wallpaper hanging off the walls, very musty smell and that window could not be closed. 2nd Single room......Should carry a health warning as the smell of mold was overpowering. Shower room.... Very smelly, and very dirty flooring and the toilet seat tries to throw you off when you use it. There were also visiting wood lice present here. Lack of anything to stand soap, shampoo, gel etc on and slippy shower floor, with no shower mat to help prevent slipping. Bathroom.... The bath was so dirty and streaked and could not be used until I gave it several goings over with ciff cleaner. I would also question the light sockets as being unsafe, and probably not allowed in a bathroom. The toilet seat in here was not even attached (husband managed to fix it). I spent a considerable amount of money on cleaning products, scrubbing brush, dusters, J. Cloths, scourers, brillo pads, shower mats, shower caddy, Toaster, iron (which I would thought was a necessary item), and coat hangers (as there was only 10 between all 4 bedrooms. I was also surprised that there was no hand gel available and no Guest book, which usually has important emergency contact telephone numbers, and operational manuals etc, etc. The whole place was very unwelcoming, with dust and cobwebs everywhere. The vacuum cleaner was totally full and the smell was terrible when in use and there was no kind of mop for the lino floors, so it was on hands and knees with a scrubbing brush. I suspect that Health and safety inspectors would have quite a list of items that need attention. Suggestions .....Vertical blinds for the lounge and kitchen windows as the path past them leads to a very busy hardware shop, and lots of people look in, which is not so good. A first aid kit would be a useful addition, along with other items I have mentioned. I did speak to the owner about these problems and he apologised profusely and admitted that the cleaner was ‘not very good’ and he would speak to her. He said that he did not know anything about the wood lice, and I wished that I had saved all the carcasses for him to count, which must have been well over a hundred during our 2 dismal weeks. He returned an hour or so later with more apologies and a box of chocolates for our Golden Wedding!!!! We had two friends staying with us for a couple of days and I understand that she is going to or has raised the state of the place to various official bodies and feels strongly that this holiday let needs serious attention or letting license revoked. It was actually our Golden Wedding anniversary and Arran is where we stayed on our Honeymoon 50 years ago. It is such a shame that this visit has left us only with great sadness. We would have left the island or tried to find somewhere else to stay, but being disabled and ground floor accommodation is our only option, together with there not being any ferry crossings available, due to problems with rough seas, cancelled ferries and available ferries being fully booked up. We just had to make the best of a very bad job. We feel very strongly that some sort of compensation should be considered for all we have had to endure, and hope that we get a favourable response from you. You will see from your records that we are fairly frequent customers of yours and hope that this will be taken into consideration.

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• Angela - Verified booking

  This property has so much potential but it has been poorly maintained.

  Positives...owner contacted me with clear instructions for entry. Excellent location. The 2 double beds very comfortable. All sheets and towels clean. Large tv excellent dishwasher easy to use. Heating good although hot air rather than radiators. 2 showers and toilets. Negatives. Whole property needs a thorough clean. Carpets dated and clearly not hoovered . Furniture old fashioned and well used. Sticky surfaces in kitchen and door handles. Both doors to wc and bathrooms did not lock and had to use a handmade sign to indicate if occupied! Door to one of the bathrooms slid shut but tended to blow open from the bottom leading to no privacy! The large shower ran scalding hot then cold..so you had to do a little dance when showering to avoid being scalded! The other shower head had to be taken off the wall to manually shower as it kept falling off! The outside patio area is messy with old plastic furniture discarded in a corner. The single bedroom you reach down a step...there was a sign to warn you...was uncomfortable and it had a flimsy plastic rail as a wardrobe! There was no iron. The worst thing was that the plastic roof was sagging and so was propped up by a tree trunk! Didn't look safe at all! Not an expert but wondered if the place needed a rewire. There was no information to tell you any information at all. Wallpaper was coming away at certain areas. Light bulbs missing in some lamps. Most of all the house smelt very musty..so we had to leave windows open! We were next to the hardware shop entrance so had many folk were passing directly by our living room window ! The microwave made strange noises when in use which was worrying! This place could be so good with some money spent on it ..new carpets curtains and furniture and a really good clean between each let. It just felt so tired and unhomely. Such a shame as it really would not take much to make this a great rental accommodation rather than a tired one .

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• Charles - Verified booking

  This collects the response from our 6 residents: Nice layout and excellent location.

  Decor a bit tired and shabby. Mitch responded very quickly when I reported the dishwasher wasn't working and had someone around within an hour. However he didn't provide an oven glove when we asked for one, or help with disposing of our green waste - need advice & container for this. Inaccurate descriptions [basic factual error which is inexcusable]: Bed was not kingsize, and double was a small double. No working locks on bathroom doors. Microwave is malfunctioning and very noisy Yard: roof over seating is leaking and sagging, and the yard was very uncared for… there was a table and chairs but you really wouldn’t want to sit out there Mechanism for the blind in the kitchen was broken We could have done with at least one bigger saucepan and big bowls for serving and salads.

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• Jen - Verified booking

  This place has great potential and the location is good.

  However its on a path to a shop and so passerbys often look in, curbing the privacy. Things were broken (toilet, blind, furniture, crockery), and everything needs a very good clean - we had to deep clean it upon arrival to make it liveable, with what we had. There was old food in the freezer and cupboards, stained cups and possibly damp in one bedroom. Really unacceptable state. The owner contacted us earlier in the day to explain how to access the key which was helpful, he told us then about one toilet not working - it would have been helpful to know in advance one toilet was not working (without the excuse that plumbers are hard to come by) as one working bathroom between 6 is not OK and we may have reconsidered staying. We won't be back to this let.

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• Catriona - Verified booking

  The setting was very peaceful.

  The chalet was well laid out. The heating was totally inadequate and at the end of September it was pretty cold. The duvet was flimsy and I'm glad we had an extra blanket from the car.They left £5 in single pound coins for each day, which was fine, we put in more than double that again and it was still cool. Please don't advertise that there is wifi. There was no Wi-Fi at all. Tried several times each day. I was hoping in the peace and quiet of doing a little research. I would rather.That said we did enjoy our Arran visit. I love these chalets and their location, they have huge potential with a little bit of serious TLC . This wee complex could be so beautiful

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