Potential to be a wonderful stay but unfortunately fell short of all our expectations

We rented this house from 12-20th August. There were 7 people staying in this house with one child. On arrival the home had a stale smell. This smell did not go away for the duration of our entire stay. There were numerous issues with the house that were not apparent before we booked. The picture of the house on booking.com shows a driveway with a gate. This was not the case when we arrived as this had been paved over with allocated parking spaces of which only one was allocated to the house. Walking into the house the outside path of the property was full of weeds making it difficult to get to the property. The ‘garden’ was unusable due being overgrown and unkempt. The front step of the house was broken making it very difficult for our two elderly parents to be able to get in and out of the property. The kitchen was fine however the dishes in the cupboards were not clean and some of the pans had burnt on residue which meant we could not use them. The fridge temperature was not stable (at one point we recorded the fridge temp as 15degrees) and as a result the food we had kept in the fridge went bad quickly. The hoover was not cleaned out for some time as it was full to the brim meaning we could not use it. Bedrooms had no mirrors with the only mirrors in the entire property being in the upstairs passage and shower room. The toilet tiles were broken upstairs, the toilet roll holder was broken and som of the door handles were loose. The beds in the bedrooms felt old and even the headboards had cloth covers making it feel like a university dorm. The cupboards in the bedrooms were old and didn’t even close properly. I tried to address these issues with the owner. He kept calling me and messaging making us feel harassed. To be fair he arranged for the hoover to be emptied and the toilet roll handle to be fixed however he was extremely rude and did not take any criticism of the property without arguing back.

The property was of a good size and, although not as well maintained as it should be,was clean. Couldn’t find the tv remote control though.

The host called me the morning of my trip to say- now no off- street parking available, he sent me details of where you can park on the street- not what we had paid for but we had no choice. The garden was un-usable with a miserable outlook. The shower downstairs was either boiling hot or freezing cold so some of us hosed down in the bathtub with handheld hose. Things were cracked, my door handle was Broken off and sellotaped back on so I couldn’t get purchase. I couldn’t hang clothes in my room as rail has no space around it, there was no lamp in my room and the door doesn’t stay open without being wedged. A lot of snagging things on top of the important issues. The pictures show what the hosts were happy with, I would warn any travellers- find somewhere else. No matter what the hosts reply here, they stopped communicating with me about the stay. They started by responding and then when I wanted to discuss our stay…. Silence. Luckily the agent stepped in to help with compensation for the stay, they could see from the photos that the standard was not acceptable. Risky to deal with hosts/ owners that ignore you and even when faced with the photos refused to acknowledge anything was wrong. I’m limited to 4 photos on the review sadly. Disappointing for a £600 a night stay- you can do better.

The location was suitable for my needs.

The outside area was poor and unkempt. There was a building site in front, unfinished pavement and no available parking. There was litter on the small lawn and no real garden to use.

The communal area in the house is spacious and easily fitted our hen group of 13. The host agreed we could check in an hour early which was appreciated. There were some nice touches such as toiletry miniatures on the beds, and a couple of the rooms (notably the downstairs bedroom and upstairs bathroom) are done out nicely. The property is good value for money and it’s within easy reach of Cambridge town centre (half an hour’s walk or ten mins in a cab)

The property advertises itself as luxury but the loo seat in the downstairs toilet was broken and there were basic kitchen items missing (eg tea towels and oven gloves). The place wasn’t thoroughly cleaned, despite the cleaners having stayed past the advertised check in time (4pm) following our agreed early arrival at 3. There also isn’t really space to use the sofa beds meaning it was a bit of a squeeze to fit us all in at night.

Rooms are lovely and a big kitchen/living area space to congregate

Slightly more sofa type seatingwould have been goodfor an accommodation allowing 14 people but there were plenty of dining chairs to use

Met our needs as a family for 4 days. comfortable clean beds. Downstairs living accommodation was good for what we wanted. Heating worked well. Abraham was responsive to our questions.

Location between a building site and take away Chinese and fish and chips. Tight parking. Many things needed finishing/ repairing. Examples, upstairs shower head would not stay in place, cupboard doors did not close, downstairs toilet door handle dropping off, front door lock/ handle dropping off, extract fan in downstairs toilet seemed to be blowing in take away cooking oil smell - not extracting- this was most unpleasant. We had to replace the batteries in the tv controllers. There are others.

Keys were accessed from lock box. The property was large and spacious. Appropriately furnished and with all necessary appliances for a comfortable stay.

The pictures are entirely accurate. The hosts were lovely, and extremely helpful. Plenty of nice touches here and there, like slippers and drinking chocolate. And a brilliantly equipped kitchen.

I was initially a little wary about it being so close to the chip shop and Chinese take away, but there no need. Very little noise, and only a pleasant smell (the take away was delicious by the way).