Glen & Nicoles place is situated in a fantastic little spot in Byron. It’s only a couple of mins walk from Johnson Street and barely more than a 5 min walk from Main Beach. LOCATION LOCATION!
The house itself is lovely, the outdoor deck and pool/spa area is fantastic. The house is nicely furnished and the star of the show is that pinball machine. It’s made me want one for my apartment. The only negative I would say physically about the house is that the beds are extremely soft- if you have any lower back issues or like a medium/firm bed, you may know where I’m coming from- I ended up having to sleep horizontally to deal with the super soft bed.
Aymie is a great manager of the property and her communication was punctual and well mannered.
The property has some very interesting rules in the house rule book. You get fined (through your security deposit, I’m assuming) for leaving dirty dishes in the sink and not leaving the dishwasher empty when you leave the property) even though we paid a whopping $240 cleaning fee. I understand leaving the place in a very good and respectful condition, but warning you that money will be charged for leaving a cup in the sink or leaving the dishwasher full (but clean) is a ridiculous concept when you pay a hefty cleaning fee.
We did have an issue while staying in the house. There were lots of parties going on locally (and in the street of the property) for Halloween and there was plenty of noise out and about with people celebrating. We received a knock on the door from the security guard that we had been using the pool late at night, which was NOT true at all and handed us a notice. The last time we had used that day was 4pm. I notified Aymie of the issue and she was very good about the mishap, but the fact we had a warning about using the pool was very odd. If there was an issue about anything in the pool area, the security guard could have just walked to the pool area to talk to us, instead we were inside when he knocked on the door. I’m assuming the noise complaint could have simply been blamed on us from one of the Halloween house parties that were in the street that night and the neighbour that the property has an issue with blamed us.
The issue that I have about this is that the description of the property (upon booking) says the pool/deck doors must be closed by 10pm and no noise outside. When Aymie contacted me 48 hours before arrival, she stipulated that the doors to the pool and deck area be closed by 9:30, contrary to the general listing description. When she contacted me the next morning after the security guard issue, she explained that there was a “very sensitive” neighbour that is not good with any noise after 9:00pm, contrary to both other lots of communication were given. This really did dampen the enjoyment of the property, to feel like you had to lock yourself inside the house by 9pm, even though the place is far from cheap and you pay for use of the entire property (to within a REASONABLE time). Even with this issue, we did enjoy ourselves.
My advice is that this property would seem to be very well suited to families with kids and the demographic of people that go to bed very early, as opposed to a group of good friends that want to enjoy Byron and enjoy themselves, simply for the fact of the “super sensitive” neighbour issue that the property seems to be having an issue with right now- 9pm is not a very reasonable time to expect to lock yourself in the house for the rest of the night to keep a neighbour happy. The sun is barely down by then in summer and you are being charged peak season rates.
The property is very good generally, but the issue the property is having with the neighbour is not and this is something that should be given notice of before the booking is made. If I was told about this neighbour issue and having to close off the deck area by 9pm and stay locked inside, I wouldn’t have booked. Plain and simple!