“We had a lovely if somewhat eventful week at Beckermet.”
While the location and the house is lovely, quiet with beautiful views, a few things happened that need mentioning. First off, this isn't a criticism as such. The owner Corinne was lovely and helpful on the phone, but...
When we phoned up for the key collection, we were told that they'd had a leak in the roof, but as far as they were concerned it was fixed. There was a bucket under the leak in one of the upstairs bedrooms just to be on the safe side. Okay then, we didn't think too much off it, and all was ok when we got there, until we had our first rain.
Well, let's just say the leak wasn't fixed. While we joked among ourselves that we had an indoor water feature it was a little bit disconcerting to say the least. The owner assured us that they were due to have the roof fixed at the end of the month.
Fair enough, and these things happen, I guess, but not really what you'd expect to find in your holiday accommodation.
I noticed in previous reviews that the house needs updating and I would certainly agree with that.
The door mechanism to the second upstairs bedroom failed on the first day we were there, and out ten year old son remained trapped in that bedroom for a good forty-five minutes, until we managed to shimmy the door open using the old credit card trick.
We did tell the owner, but she didn't get back to us until the crisis was averted. We put a door stop under the door and kept it open to avoid the mechanism going again. The doors to both bathrooms also stuck, though, thankfully never failed. Like I said an update is definitely in order.
There was also the rather intriguing matter of the missing can opener, which caused a bit of grief for one of our daughters at dinner time. The nearest bigger shop is a good 15 minutes drive away, and besides, I wasn't going to buy one, lol.
The owner assured us there were two of them previously in the drawer, and I certainly believe her, as the house was very well stocked in other regards. Any gadgets imaginable was in the place otherwise. I have to state here that I was impressed with the cleanliness and the items provided. It really was a home from home, right down to toiletries in the bathroom.
Clear instructions to everything were in the folders, which also very helpful.
So all in all, it was an enjoyable stay and yes, I would recommend Longcliffe, providing those updates are done, of course.
- Mr O'connor, August 2018
