Self Catering in Berkshire - Sunningdale

Such Potential Badly Executed
It is with great dissatisfaction I have to give this negative review. This property was very overrated and the unfortunate communication with neighbours, owners and Sykes Cottages really tarnished the experience for us. We occupied the property on 31st July straight through to the second week of August. Ahead of the booking we tried consistently to view Gleneagles as we wanted to see what would be received for amount charged for two weeks and also we wanted to establish what amenities would be available. This was not accommodated and had we viewed the property ahead of booking we would have altered our plans. What we found out when we reached the property was that the pictures of the property show beautiful surroundings, however the views from the house do not. Furthermore, it is very enclosed with other neighbouring properties in very close proximity, which means that (especially in hot weather) there is very little breeze and it can appear rather stifling. This scenario is not helped by the addition of numerous gardeners attending every day in one of the neighbouring properties from 7am, so there is therefore a constant surround sound of leaf blowers or lawn mowers, making the garden not that pleasant to use in the morning. It is not just the noise but the dust and debris in the air from their gardening work that makes it unpleasant and this was encountered every morning for the two weeks. The property appears tired and very hot. We were advised by the owner ahead of booking that it was a ?cool house? and we cannot stress enough how pleased we are that we took with us 5 air-conditioning units. We appreciate it is a hot summer but because it is so confined there really is little air even with windows open. There are elements of the house and garden that is in need of some refreshing. One would have thought that ahead of guests arriving burnt out lights would have been replaced, however we had to highlight this to the housekeeper to get these dealt with. When we attended Gleneagles the cleaners were supposed to have completed the house and be ready for occupancy at 4pm (as advised by Sykes Cottages). In fact we had prearranged with the owner that the occupants would arrive at 3pm but the cleaners were far from finished and when they were finally ready to depart it was past 8pm. On the day of arrival we had an unfortunate episode when the housekeeper was showing us how to lock the property at night but the housekeeper got her key stuck in the lock. This event meant an alarm went off and subsequently meant that the workers and the housekeeper stayed to deal with this until past midnight. When my PA discussed this with the owner just to relay the scenario, it was met with ?I know and I paid my housekeeper £800 for her time?! This is completely unacceptable response and the owner seems to know the price of everything but the value of nothing. The house was cleaned to their best ability, excluding the pool. The pool had not been cleaned from the previous occupants and we were advised that the pool would be cleaned every Monday, however our occupancy commenced on a Friday and this should have been dealt with ahead of new occupants, let alone that one of the stairs into pool was missing so getting in and out was a little challenge. In times where Covid is very apparent you would have thought cleaning the pool in time for new guests would have been mandatory, but apparently not. When I mentioned to the owner this I was advised ?it was windy so leaves would be in the pool? and I expressed that the concern was not for leaves and the pool attendant would need to attend to put in extra chlorine and check filters etc, as the family would not feel comfortable swimming until this had been done, but the owner could not get the company to attend on a weekend and as such the pool was not attended to until the Monday. This should have been organised for the Friday. The cleaning company that attended the property ahead our occupancy threw the rubbish apparently in the neighbouring bins, and as such on day one of our stay we had encountered very disgruntled neighbours, however we were not at fault and when this was mentioned to the owner it was greeted with ?they don't usually do this, there must have been more rubbish?, thereby not even acknowledging it was her appointed cleaners fault or even apologising for this situation. On one evening we had mentioned to the housekeeper that we wanted the lights in the pool on longer and the owner kindly organised an engineer to attend to deal with this, however we were not given any warning of anyone attending and this seemed rather strange as the engineer arrived in a British Gas van and were unaware of what works were being done. There was a major issue with communication and as a very private family this seemed very strange as we were unaware some would attend without notice. At the end of week one, on a summer evening we decided to play some music in the accommodation to accompany our dinner and at 9:00pm we received a phone call from the owner telling us that we must turn off or down the music as the neighbours were upset. The sun had not even set and our music was not even that loud, but apparently it was loud enough to warrant a disgruntled neighbouring calling the owner and they the neighbour deciding to do a noise war and put their music very loud. For the price we paid for this accommodating this is completely unacceptable and we could understand if this was past 11pm but this was 9:00pm and the sun was still light. In addition to the above the owner felt she was being accommodating but was rather unethical in certain approaches. We did eventually feel settled and we wanted to extend our stay to the end of the weekend, however we had major issues trying to extend our stay, albeit this was always the original plan and we had let this be known to the owner ahead of arrival. Sadly we had to enter into some very firm negotiations and the owner renegaded her original agreement to deal with us directly and she originally offered us a free night to assist our needs not to depart on the Friday, but then when the occupancy commenced all our WhatsApp conversations and phone calls seemed to not have registered and the original free night was then offered back to us for an additional excessive fee. We did managed to clear things up and finally settle on the additional two nights at a figure we found to be reasonable, however the experience was tarnished further by this protracted and tough communication. We did ask Sykes Cottages to intervene however it appeared that Skyes Cottages did not relay information to the owner, or the owner did not acknowledge any communication about extending and it was a difficult process. On the first attempt getting Sykes involved the Company advised us that this booking was blocked and the dates were no longer available, the second attempt involved me contacting the owner and having to act as middle man as Sykes advised that they had not heard from the owner, although the owner advised me she had spoken to them. There was numerous conflicting information and we felt we were alone in dealing with the extension and Sykes Cottages had washed their hands of their clients as soon as the booking had been made. Having dealt with holiday agents before their approach was uniquely awful and it would have been normal practice that they would have assisted on behalf of the owner and the end user due to the size of the booking, however I had to chase Sykes on at least 5 occasions to see if they had spoken to the owner to relay our thoughts and requirement to extend for the additional two days but this seemed to be a fruitless effort. The owner was far from professional and made an ill feeling within the stay, as she spoke about issuing fines if we used wrong bins, which we ensured we complied with. She mis-quoted for the housekeeper if we wanted to use her independently, which we did and when the final bill for the housekeeper arrived it didn?t take account of the pre-arranged fresher on the Fridays. On at least 3 occasions the owner stated that the next letting (in August) would be paying significantly higher than us, which was entirely inappropriate as we had not negotiated on the very expensive letting for 2 weeks plus and she made it sound like we had received a bargain and we should be grateful for that, and thus her services were lacking and respect for the occupants. The entire experience really was tarnished and although the location of Gleneagles and the house has positives, sadly the negatives outweighs these and I would strongly deter people staying here until this is properly managed and air-conditioning is fitted throughout the premises.
perriep
2020-09-08