Tim,
I think it's important that you take a visit down to Bixley, to see the conditions for yourself, try walking around on the carpet and floors bare footed and see them turn brown.
“You'll also see the poor shower cubicle conditions and grime around the corners and sides of bathrooms. Along with the dust and cobwebs and dirt on the sofas!
I'm not certain cleaners alone, can fix all these things, especially not in just a couple of hours!
Only then after you've visited will you be able see and feel our frustrations at paying £1000 for 6 nights to stay in those conditions. I'm certain after a visit, you'd totally understand.
As mentioned previously the location and garden, and also the kitchen appliances were great.
Kind regards,
Faye
On Sat, 5 Sep 2020, 16:08 Tim Bushe Bushe, wrote:
Faye
I am based in London and I rely entirely on the cleaning firm to do a good job, but if they don’t do it for any reason I have to rely on my guests letting me know. A simple text or email is all that’s required. In the past the cleaners have been very quick to deal with any complaints and I’m sure they would have sorted out your issues had you informed me at the start of your stay.
It’s extremely frustrating for me to get complaints when its too late for me to do anything about it.
They are paid a serious amount of money to do a through job and I’m sorry that the couple they sent to clean Bixley apparently didn’t do an adequate job in this instance.
We have had very few complaints over the years and of course most people only write reviews if they have complaints. The reason I stress contacting me at the start of any stay is precisely to avoid this kind of correspondence!
It would be helpful if you could send me the photographs you mentioned so I can pass these onto the cleaners.
Kind regards
Tim
On Sat, 5 Sep 2020 at 15:54, Faye Lewis wrote:
Hi Tim,
It certainly shouldn't be the paying guests responsibility to let you know that the cleaning standards are not up to scratch upon arrival. This should be checked before we arrive.
I also think you should have confidence in the cleaners you employ for your business, to do a high standard job.
The last thing anybody wants on their holiday, is to have to contact the owner, ask them to send a cleaner out and then undergo the inconvenience of having cleaners in while they are there! This seems completely wrong.
It also implies that you are probably used to getting these complaints. I did read a few worrying reviews after we'd booked, but I'd really hoped the issues they'd raised with cleanliness etc, had been sorted.
It's great to hear that your business is doing so well and has been booked back to back over the last few months due to the pandemic and staycations.
However, please appreciate that we paid highly for a holiday home that was totally substandard. Cleanliness should be paramount and top priority due to covid, and we were quite horrified by what conditions we found Bixley in.
Sykes have now contacted me as part of protocol to ask for our feedback and reviews of Bixley.
Kind regards,
Faye
On Sat, 5 Sep 2020, 13:14 Tim Bushe Bushe, wrote:
Hi Faye
Thanks for your email .
I'm very sorry you had to spend time cleaning when you arrived, although I do stress guests should tell me straight away if there are cleaning issues. I can't help if I'm not informed straight away. The cleaning firm would have come round straight away if you'd asked.
I have copied the cleaning firm with your email and they have called me to say they are laying off the two cleaners who came to the house, as they are obviously not doing their job properly.
On the other issues - the house has been solidly booked for months which makes cleaning carpets etc pretty impossible. I'm taking Bixley off the market at the end of October for a major refit, which hopefully will deal with most of the issues you have raised.
If you wish to come again at some point in the future contact me directly and I'll give you a discounted stay next time round.
kind regards
tim
On Sat, 5 Sep 2020 at 09:32, Faye Lewis wrote:
Hi Tim,
Luckily we took our coffee maker with us!
It was a gorgeous, idyllic spot out in the woods, very peaceful and the garden was lovely. A cottage that I expect at one stage was wonderful on the inside, but a real shame that we did not get to see it at it's best.
I did see the note on the pdf instructions, to inform you straight away if there's any problems, however, as you can probably appreciate I did not want to spend the first part of my holiday away (the only holiday my family have had all year) writing this email! As it was I had to spend the first part cleaning...
To be open, on arrival, we were less than impressed with the cleanliness inside the house. If this is the cleaning standard during a worldwide pandemic, I wouldn't like to see the normal standards!
We had two young children with us, and I spent the first part of my holiday making the work surfaces and bathrooms acceptably hygienic, along with dusting in most areas, and as you can imagine this is not what you should expect to have to do.
To our misfortune, I think the previous people staying, had become ill and vomitted and the traces were to be seen around the bottom of shower room hand basin and toilet, all areas that had not been bothered or attempted to be cleaned up by the cleaner. Really quite awful to find!
I can't help but feel that there is a complete lack of care or duty, as this was by no means a cheap stay at £1000 pounds for 6 nights! We have stayed in many holiday rentals and this was by far the uncleanest.
I would expect that an older house, that has been used for holiday rentals to have general wear and tear of course, but this was just poor cleanliness in most areas.
Dust on head boards, lamps, appliances, very dirty carpets (my children's feet were brown after walking bare footed on it), dirty stained sofa cushions (which I swiftly turned over, only to find dirt and old food under cushions, which could be easily vacuumed), the sides of kitchen were dusty, floors and general areas / corners bathrooms unclean, shower cubicle corners and door trims very dirty and just not up to scratch at all.
I would suggest, if you are paying out for a cleaner (Maid of Rye?) that they need an overhaul, as they are doing the very bare minimum. The carpets and sofas need an industrial steam clean (throws won't do it) or to be honest replacing altogether, for easier maintenance versions.
The mattresses and head boards and shower cubicle had also seen better days.
We feel let down by this and feel for the money paid, the standards were unacceptable, particularly during the covid pandemic too.
I'd prefer to give personal feedback to you first, so that you have the option to put this right, before leaving public reviews and contacting Sykes.
I have taken lots of photos of areas how we found them on arrival too for reference.
Best,
Faye Lewis”