Moray Self Catering cottage, South Lodge, Forres, sleeps 4

Nice house and good for dogs. Facilities need improving.
A great location and a very pretty house, but............... The house itself is very pretty and in a lovely location, with a great enclosed garden for dogs. There are plenty of shops (Tesco/Sainsbury/Lidl) and amenities within a 15 minute drive, so it is a good location for being both quiet and tranquil yet convenient. Walking from this location is really good, with woodlands and rivers. We did have a lovely holiday, it was just spoilt a little due to the below. Mid holiday service clean was supposed to happen on the middle Saturday. We stripped the beds and collected all of the towels together to make it easier for whoever was going to do this, and then went out for the day. Arrived home at 11:30pm, the service clean had not happened, we had to put all the bed linen back on late at night. Following morning, I left a message for the estate office, as per the instructions in the accommodation welcome book. We walked over to the castle, to which South Lodge belongs, but there was nobody about to ask, it is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. We did not hear from anyone for the the entire rest of the stay, I rang again several times and only got the answerphone. The accommodation welcome book, said that there was also spare bedding for all of the beds, so I tried to make the beds up again with the spare bedding, but there weren't enough pillow cases and no double duvet or sheet. In addition there were no spare towels. I had to wash and dry all of the bedding and towels myself, which is not easy considering there is no tumble dryer and very limited drying capacity on the outside line and the airer. It took a whole day of the holiday to do the washing and move everything around to try to get it dry, which is quite ridiculous considering how much we paid for the accommodation in the first place. I fully appreciate that in the current covid situation, things are difficult at times, I have no problem with changing the beds myself, but we should have been provided with clean bedding and towels half way through the holiday. 2. Quantity of plates/cups/glasses. I appreciate that the accommodation is for four people, but only providing 4 plates, 4 bowls (3 mugs & 2 cups and saucers) several sorts of glasses of which there were also only 4, is quite ridiculous. I understand that they may not wish to encourage people to entertain or have other people staying, but only having 4 of everything is just bonkers. 3. This property could definitely do with a washer/dryer, considering it is Scotland and it rains a lot. The house is old and clearly has some damp issues, it was fine in the summer but we still had to turn on the heating to get anything to dry. As the heating is primarily night storage heaters, you cannot put anything on them to dry either. The only viable radiator for drying anything was the towel radiator in the bathroom. The outdoor clothes lines, whilst situated at the back of the property to be aesthetically pleasing, remains in the shade all day even in August, so nothing really dries. 4. Broadband connection is intermittent and kept dropping out, despite standing next to the router.
659louisew
2021-08-15