Dog Friendly Cottages In Polzeath

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• James - Verified booking

  We arrived in the evening and the following morning I had to go to John Bray's Rock office with some items of concern listed below and others became apparent during our stay: - Cupboard door in kitchen for waste bin was falling off its hinges.

  - Cupboard door in TV room came off in my hand as I opened it. - Light in fridge in kitchen not working correctly. - Neither of the two outside PIR sensor floodlights were working so difficult to unload car in the dark. - Internal lights in both ovens were not working. - Top floor bedroom sash window impossible to fully close so serious draught and wind noise at night. - Microwave fan catching on housing during cooling with clattering noise. - Both ovens needed a serious clean and grease could be wiped off with kitchen paper towel. - Door compartment covers in fridge in utility room were missing which reduced capacity. - Shower in ensuite on first floor was broken - subsequent visit by maintenance man confirmed the thermostat had failed. - Shower trays in ensuite and other first floor bathrooms were in an appalling state with black mould all around the bottom of the trays. The maintainance man did his best to scrub clean but these two shower trays clearly need replacing. I have photo's of these if you wish to see them. - Main bedroom mattress is stained - we did not discover this until we stripped the beds on departure. Single bedroom mattress was also stained. I have photo's to send. - Several of the cooking utensils were unusable due to the non stick coating flaking off. This is the third large family property we have rented from John Bray in the last 16 months at a cumulative cost of almost £9,000. The other property (The Old Granary, Cants Farm) was excellent and was booked twice. The Haven is in need of updating in several areas, in particular the kitchen and several of the bathrooms. I can only assume that previous hirers have not bothered to report the faults we encountered. Following my visit to the Rock office a most helpful maintenance man visited the same afternoon and repaired cupboard doors but was unable to replace the shower in our ensuite. This was a most disappointing (and expensive) experience and makes us reluctant to consider future rentals with Sykes / John Bray.

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• Paul - Verified booking

  A beautiful home in a fantastic location let down by poor cleanliness and ongoing maintenance issues that you wouldn’t expect at any holiday let especially not one in this price bracket.

  TV’s all stopped working mid stay and were still being looked at when we left. No information in the property folder about the hot water and heating systems. We had no hot water in downstairs bathrooms for a couple of days until Sykes staff turned it and heating to continuously on. Two downstairs bedrooms then became unbearably hot despite thermostats being set to 18 degrees. A further visit by someone who looked at TV and heating claimed to have fixed this but did not, so heating had to be turned back to Auto timings and bedroom windows opened for a few hours before bedtime to try and cool the rooms. 25 degrees is too hot and to someone who has underfloor heating at their own home suggests either failed actuators or stuck zone valves. A top oven/microwave with no shelves, a chair with stains and springs protruding under the seat and a kitchen drawer with a vast mixture of odd utensils probably collected over the years, some that clearly need discarding, all give a poor impression. Someone should replace several downlight bulbs that don’t work and a few labels on the many light switches would help. The light switch for the downlights in the boot room needs checking as it causes the lights to flicker off and on unless held down, so best left off and use the switch outside the room. How do you turn the outside lights on; would be useful when unloading the car. The John Bray emergency phone number in the folder was not answered. Thankfully Sykes phones are staffed at weekends, but it seems to me that appropriately knowledgeable staff weren’t sent soon enough, or at all. It’s not reasonable to expect general maintenance staff to know how to fix complex underfloor heating systems and tv distribution systems that vary from one property to another. After the first visit specialists needing sending immediately to get the issues properly diagnosed and fixed rather than allowing the issues to remain and drag on until after our holiday was over and those paying even more for Xmas week turn up.

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• Mrs Julie Glauer - Verified booking

  Property was dirty when arrived - litter on floor in in lounge, bits of dirt on floors, toilet in en-suite dirty, en-suite floor dirty, litter & coffee stains left on marble topped bedside table in double bedroom & when wiped away with damp white cloth, cloth was filthy, sofa in kitchen area dirty & seen better days, kitchen drawers contained litter & bits of old food, dishwasher needed rinse aid when we arrived, not a lot of wardrobe space as in several bedrooms cupboards locked - in one twin room no hanging space. Only enough outdoor chairs at table for 8 people despite sleeping 10 & of the 8 chairs one was partly broken. Only 2 rusty old Sun loungers. Table tennis table in shed has had water leakage on it & no longer flat at one end & bats were in a bad state. All games except garden Jenga were for young kids. Mini snooker table with one broken cue. Extra games annexe with washing machine & drier was filthy. Lots of owners own cram lying around in games room & rusty broken old pool / boat ladder lying in garden, dirty boards/ropes/cans lying around table tennis shed. Pegs on washing line rusty & disintegrated. Blender didn’t work. No hairdryer. Fridge was tiny for 10 people. A storage unit/table in kitchen area had a few cushions & a puzzle marked with missing pieces & covered in lumps of old food bits that had presumably fallen through the holes. Boules place has seen better days! It Range cooker was set up to come on only in mornings & evenings - it would have been nice to have been notified about this for planning as 2 small electric rings are not satisfactory for 10 people. Directions could have been clearer i.e. turn right on the sharp left bend directly after barn & property is on RHS of lane to Mill directly opposite 2 stone cottages.

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• The B Family - Verified booking

  Loved the fact there was plenty of space for everyone that was secure and safe not to worry where the little one was playing. The downstairs bedroom for one of the group who can’t manage stairs too well was almost spot on, just needed a bigger shower cubicle to make it perfect. Possibly a square cubicle with an outward opening door, as the sliding doors limit how much space you have to get into said cubicle. Lovely big kitchen and dining area, fantastic space for home cooking and plenty of seating for everyone. The table could do with a lazy Susan to spin food round when serving (but passing food round and over others added a bit of fun to meal time, much to the amusement of our toddler). A decent sized fridge/freezer for a big group with varying dietary wants, and a second chiller for drinks was a very nice addition. Don’t often find it in houses we’ve been, but there were plenty of seats by for everyone in the living room area for us all to sit down. Could have done with a second tv in kitchen area for those who don’t enjoy football of an evening, or other shows etc when winding down of an evening). Loads of space to park our three cars with plenty of room around etc, good access to front and back of the property from the driveway. Possibly a discreet handrail up the front steps would have been useful for the eldest in our group, but not a huge issue. We also got a very quick response when we had a minor issue with the gate where it wouldn’t fully close, somebody was out to take a look within half an hour of calling. He was lovely and friendly and the gate was fixed that same day (a Saturday too). Very efficient and meant our toddler and small dog could continue to enjoy the whole outside space in the sunshine.

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• Laura - Verified booking

  We loved the property and it was perfect for a family holiday.

  We noted some of the previous feedback about the cooker / oven and would like to provide feedback on that also, The oven was not in good working order. The shelving not secured to the sides and as a result an entire tray of cooked food fell into the oven and caused a lot of mess etc. The dishwasher kept giving us a blocked F11 fault and we purchased a dishwasher cleaner from the SPAR and ran it through but it might be worth owners doing this after week long visits to make sure the appliance in good working order. The air-conditioning/heating was very difficult to work out and as a result the rooms would be too warm at times. A number of the bedroom blinds were either close to breaking or broken and probably need some attention. What would be REALLY helpful is a full manual of the household. A compendium that lists in one place all the facilities of the house and how to use them (and what to do if something goes wrong) as each home has its own quirks and trying to work out cook tops/ovens/dishwahsers/airconditioning units etc is time consuming and frustrating. A handy go-to manual of all things and troubleshooting for the property would be really helpful. That said, the team at John Bray were extremely helpful and prompt in providing assistance with handymen on the issues we reported and we were very grateful. We loved our experience overall and the property and would love to return again for a longer stay. Thank you!

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