What greeted us after a long 6 hour journey was so disappointing. Starting with the garden, it hadn’t been tended to for weeks, the patio was black and needed jet washing, overgrown bushes all round and leaves all over the ground. The garden bench was broken and unusable and the rush doormat threadbare and the front of the house was covered in bird muck. The key safe was old and doesn’t open every time, on one occasion it took 15 minutes to open - highlighted on a previous review which still hasn’t been fixed. The biggest issue greeting us was the rubbish. Bin day in Fowey is Thursday which is good timing given changeover is Friday, but only if the previous guests can be bothered to put it out which ours didn’t. So we were greeted with 5 huge bags of rubbish and recycling on our doorstep which was rotting throughout our stay - management company declined to remove it.
Once inside we were welcomed by the overwhelming smell of damp. The small hallway had damp up the walls and paint peeling away and the living room had damp covered over three out of four walls, the chimney breast was literally dripping in water (we have videos). There was also no internal doormat and given we were bringing rain and dirt in from the outside into the hallway, the hallway got really wet and dirty immediately.
Back to the living room where we immediately found huge stains on the carpet - about 12” x 12” in size and the sofas looked as though they’d been taken from a crack den having lost all their shape and covered in marks, stains and felt tip pen, the cushions were equally as filthy.
The kitchen was disgusting with balls of dog hair on the floor, cob webs and dust covering everywhere. The fridge freezer is housed in a cubby hole and the stench from there is almost toxic from the damp. The microwave is about 20 years old and had rust on the inside and the kettle lid was broken and won’t come off, the handle is left to balance on the top to leave three sharp screws protruding. The cooker is a Smeg but very old with the operating diagrams worn off the front of the cooker and the digital display broken as well. The cupboard under the stairs is rammed with ‘stuff’, ironically there are also four pots of mould resistant paint and stain cover up, make of that what you will. The welcome pack was hilarious, just some sachets of tea and coffee but the icing on the cake was a cleaning pack, the irony of this was not lost on us.
The bedrooms are a bit better albeit in the twin room each of the beds have a mattresses that are 12” shorter than the bed frame so anyone who is remotely tall will have their feet dangling over the edge. The bed linen and towels were new and clean and of good quality but the throws on the end of each bed needed washing.
The bathroom needs a complete makeover, the laminate flooring has suffered water damage and has warped and the laminate is coming off the wooden boards. The same applies to the wooden bath panel which also has water damage and blown the top of it apart. The radiator is covered in rust and so too is the towel holder. The plug to the sink is broken (and filthy) and there is no extractor fan in the bathroom (also broken) and so there is instruction to leave the window open instead. There are no tooth brush holders or glasses and no toilet roll holder either.
Further issues are that builders are working next door at the attached cottage and woke us us banging every morning, albeit this isn’t the owners fault, but a note of caution at least.
So, as soon as we got there we called the management company who could do nothing that day due to the time of the night (6pm), so we decided to clean the house ourselves and we went out and bought throws for the sofas and an internal doormat and air fresheners. The management company said they were already aware of the carpets and sofas so clearly this had been reported before but nothing done and they also stated a doormat couldn’t be used as it wouldn't allow the door to be opened, funny that, we went out and bought one that worked just fine.
The next day the management company stated they could get a cleaner over and provide a doormat, we informed them there was no point due to us cleaning it ourselves and buying one. They said they couldn’t get the carpets or sofas cleaned due to no breaks in the holiday bookings but we were happy for them to come whilst we were there but this wasn’t facilitated. They also said they couldn’t do anything about the damp but advised to put the heating on, this didn’t work and we were left with the damp all week which got worse and worse each day despite there being no rain fall during our stay, it was shocking.
Our experience was compounded by the customer service we encountered, in a nutshell nobody cared. The owners will no doubt respond below and say they offered to resolve all the issues and that we refused (this was the drum they were banging) they didn't at all, in fact they didn't contact us once during our stay or anytime after, not even a text or any form of apology, this is now 5 weeks on. The management company were also hopeless, again there was no contact from our second day onwards. The only thing the owners told Sykes Cottages (who we booked through) during our stay was to ask us to leave early and they would reimburse us, that was on the afternoon of our last day! After the holiday Sykes phoned the owners, left voicemails and sent emails but they didn’t respond to any until two weeks later when they refused to offer any form of apology or reimbursement.
Sykes were terrible for help and support, I spoke to them every day of our stay and for two weeks after. In total I spoke to 10 different advisors and each one, bar India, fobbed me off. I asked to speak to a manager on numerous occasions and not one phoned. During three weeks of complaints Sykes didn’t call me once, I had to phone them 18 times over 3 weeks to get any sort of answer from them. Be warned, they are only booking agents and cannot or will not provide any form of protection to the customer, it’s between you and the owners.
It’s such a pity, Fowey is a gorgeous Cornish town, if only Rose Cottage was the same.
All bookings are direct with the owner 