Trossachs Self Catering cottage, Carnmore, Balquhidder, sleeps 6

Money grabbing
I stayed here in September 2020 with my two sons. The details promised an Aga, which turned out not to be in use, much to my disappointment as that was the real reason I chose this property, along with the promised open fire - but we'll get on to that shortly. Still, it was beautifully equipped and situated right down near Loch Voil with fabulous views - so much so that I re-booked for this September. This was somewhat unfortunate as they have decided - now we're well into June - that they will cancel my booking. Their pretend reason - apparently the property needed three hours extra cleaning after we left, although it seems to have taken them nine months to notice this and, of course, has nothing to do with the fact that they have now massively increased their prices, to make up for the money they lost over Covid. The only thing that could possibly have needed extra cleaning (because we'd used it!) was the open fire. My son loved it, we have a fire at home, and he made the most of it. I hadn't realised that the property was as big as it was and, as the cleaner was already on the doorstep before our appointed leaving time, I felt under pressure to vacate as soon as possible so we didn't clean the fire out - a task which would have taken me no more than half an hour anyway - remember I was brought up with open fires, hence my son's fascination with them. Everything else was spotless, we stripped the beds, cleaned everything that wasn't nailed down in the dishwasher, there could have been not a single complaint from them or a hair or a speck of dust left - our complaint was that, despite the coal bunker being open, we were treated as thieves because we took a bit of coal for the fire - oh yes, that was another lie, they claimed that we could buy coal in the village and this was untrue - yes indeed, despite a bag of coal being around £8.50 at most - it was wrong of us to think that we could use some, from the unlocked coal bunker, for the open fire. All that money for a week away and they couldn't spare us a bit of coal - as I said in the title money grabbing, even after we spent a small fortune in their shop in Callander. I hope whoever books my week in September, the one I've been looking forward to all year, having worked on the front line during Covid, realises what these people are like. I'm very disappointed and angry with them that they'd do this to a front-line care worker AND lie about the reason.
Rose M
2021-06-13