“To arrive at the flat, we needed to park in the allocated space.”
This was already occupied. We had to park in the pay and display car park. Eventually, getting on for two hours later, a neighbour who happened to come out, fetched the driver of the car blocking our space, a lady from the estate agents below the flat, Albury and Hall.
In the meanwhile, I had left a message on the flat owner's phone, but never received a response.
It was only on getting into the flat, and discovering the information file, that we read that Albury and Hall sometimes used the space.
Unlike every one of the many other Sykes properties we have stayed in, there was no 'welcome pack' of the usual milk, tea, biscuits, etc., other than a few leftover tea bags.
The kettle was so badly furred-up that we had to go out and buy some descaler, to use before we could make a drink.
There were no spare toilet rolls, paper kitchen towels, or any soap for the wash basin. All previous Sykes bookings have provided at least something.
Although the flat had all the electrical appliances we needed, the were no instruction leaflets, except for the storage heaters, which we did not use.
There was, however, such an over-abundance of kitchen equipment, crockery, glassware and cutlery (who needs 22 forks in a flat for two?) that the only space left for us to store our food was the fridge (the carcass of which was worryingly hot).
The split-level dressing table in the bedroom had a marble top which was loose, a swivel-mounted mirror, which was loose at one side, and a missing drawer handle.
On one cool evening we decided to use the flat's convector heater, only to find that the top of the plug was broken, exposing the base of the earth pin.
The television screen is so small that watching from the settee in front of it, we could not read ordinary font text.
The hot tap at the plastic wash basin was loose, swivelling when turned off.
This flat is so full of what to us seemed a hotch-potch of furnishing styles, and over provision of contents, that we felt it was below Sykes' usual standards.
- Rev Bales, September 2019