“Scandale Bridge Cottage - Overpriced
I wanted to take my Son on holiday to the Lake District and Scandale Bridge Cottage looked like the perfect base, great location and safe, exclusive, off-road parking for my car.”
We paid £697 for 4 nights for 2 people.
We needed to turn on the heating and this was straightforward, just turn the thermostat. We didn’t need access to the boiler controls as a previous guest had to.
There was clean bedding and towels.
The WiFi works well and reaches bedrooms.
The TV is a little dated but we were able to connect a phone via HDMI which was good.
But here is the down side. First impression, there’s no hand soap for the hand basins. I know a minority of guests will ...
We paid £697 for 4 nights for 2 people.
We needed to turn on the heating and this was straightforward, just turn the thermostat. We didn’t need access to the boiler controls as a previous guest had to.
There was clean bedding and towels.
The WiFi works well and reaches bedrooms.
The TV is a little dated but we were able to connect a phone via HDMI which was good.
But here is the down side. First impression, there’s no hand soap for the hand basins. I know a minority of guests will take away items from a holiday stay, but that shouldn’t discourage the owners from providing a few essentials. During the week we found other things lacking:
No tea towel
No dishcloths
No washing up liquid
No cleaning products (You’re meant to leave the cottage clean on departure, which we managed to do in spite of this, apart from the fridge which was long overdue for a proper clean around the vents - see photos). We didn’t use the oven or hob and only a few items of crockery and glassware, the rest remained unused though some of those were a little grubby.
There was one dishwasher tablet and one water blown tablet, maybe left by a previous guest? - see photo.
I have stayed in some places where there are complementary toiletries and at the very least, some soap for the hand basins, some go as far as to provide a bottle of wine, chocolates or a mini hamper. I don’t expect any of these but the basics would be nice.
Looking at the reviews on the website, back in August 2023, Gavin reported a blind was broken and inoperative, we found the same blind still with no chain or cords - see photos.
The ensuite bedroom door doesn’t close and it is presumably a fire door as there is an automatic closer and a fire action notice attached (see photo). The ensuite bathroom door doesn’t fit well either but can close with a heave.
The clocks didn’t work (no big deal).
When we started encountering problems, I read back through other reviews and noted the response of the owners. The responses seem to be quite dismissive so I may be wasting my time giving further feedback, which is intended to be constructive and helpful.
Standard excuse seems to be “if you had phoned…”, well no, guests should not have to disrupt their holiday to report maintenance issues that have previously been ignored.
Response to “M” from July 2023 “you should have reported it via the telephone number in the information file in the Cottage” and “cannot understand why you would give a 50 % rating based on the two adverse points you have erroneously raised”
Guest Nigel in January 2023 reported some issues which have since been fixed, thankfully. He said “Only 5 plates in house for 8 people”, to which the response was “We do not advertise the house to sleep 8 guests hence we provide the necessary amount of utensils and crockery for the number of guests the house is advertised to provide for”
The cottage is advertised for 6 guests so should one go hungry or wait for 2nd sitting? I’d love to know Nigel! The availability of utensils was fine but the quality and cleanliness, less so.
We had no such problem as there was plenty of crockery, but we chose to eat out.
Nigel also said “Bath / sink leaked through to the lounge”. More on this later.
The ensuite shower is badly designed. Granted there’s not much that can be done about this other than replacing the shower tray. The problem is that the rim of the shower tray is flat, so any water running down the walls of the cubicle then run along the top of the rim and out onto the floor. I found a way around this is to direct the monsoon shower head to the opposite corner and lay a piece of toilet paper across the rim of the shower tray to direct the run-off into the tray. There was nevertheless a lot of condensation on the walls outside the cubicle as the extractor fan is inadequate and the ensuite is not heated. The ensuite is not heated as the small towel rail doesn’t work, it’s currently switched off, but if you try to open the valves to turn it on, one of them leaks (see photo). There is nowhere to put toiletries in the ensuite shower cubicle, a small shelf and/or soapdish would be good.
Our biggest concern was the leaks, one from the main bathroom down to the lounge. It’s obviously a long-standing issue as it was reported by Nigel in January 2023. You can see the damage to the ceiling and you can see the attempt to paint over that damage as there’s a subtle difference in the shade of white (you may be able to pick it up from some of the photos). When we noticed we also looked under the ensuite and there was a leak there too (See photos and video). Neither leak produced torrents (yet) and we placed containers under to catch the water, reported it to maintenance and decided not to use the bathrooms for shower or bath after that. The response to Nigel in January 2023 was “Occasionally, leaks happen”. This is true, but as a property owner, I’d be scared the ceiling might come down and I’d make sure that the leak is fixed, not painted over.
We did not call out maintenance until the last night because:
I found workarounds for most of the problems and had taken everything but the kitchen sink (and cleaning materials) to the cottage.
We only discovered the leaks from upstairs to downstairs late in our stay. By the way the one from the bathroom is only when the tub is draining so it is likely to be a leak in the waste pipes.
The reason I don’t hold out much hope that this constructive feedback will be listened to, or acted on is that some of the issues reported previously are still unresolved and the parting shot to Nigel was “We … sincerely hope that you find a cottage more to your liking and requirements, for your next trip away together”.
Which is easily interpreted as “go stay somewhere else”. My Son and I certainly will and if you're looking for holiday accommodation, maybe you will too?
The constructive criticism from others was somewhat rudely dismissed, so I expect the same for my review. The review mechanism doesn’t allow guests to reply to owners’ feedback, so I won’t be able to contest any owner responses or rudeness either.
Full review here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WcGMGjynlt2_ZrKIY-q-XLujzsbkVSVK8v009Q66o_4/
Photos and video here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/2yPjjGiaoN2Ccnb36
- Richard, September 2024
