The location was perfect and the house and garden were beautiful, luxurious, comfortable and well maintained and clean.
However I am disappointed at the timeliness of communication from the host about some of their rules and restrictions on the property.
I want to clarify that I have absolutely no issues with the restrictions or this rule by the host. This is their property and these rules are important and need to be followed by guests. They would have to deal with repercussions from any excess noise from guests and in addition, while I was clear that this was not a party and we would not be causing excess noise or mess, they as hosts do not know us and have every right to be concerned that we could be louder than I had told them. While of course we could have been charged additional for this or action taken against us this would still potentially cause long-term repercussions to them with their neighbourhood.
However, I communicated the number of additional guests on 5th of November after a back and forth discussion about the gathering we had planned. I was only given a response from the host on the 18th of November 2 days before our stay. The final day to cancel and have some sort of refund was on the 15th of November. Their lack of communication meant that we were unable to get any return on the large amount of money we had already paid for the accommodation and we had to make quick plans to accomodate these rules.
We were able to make alternate plans at the last minute but due to this only arrived at the property at around 2am to sleep and didn’t get to truly enjoy the property that we had paid for.
To reiterate, there is not issue with the host making their rules and their reason for these are valid and their right. The issue is that the host only told us of these conditions after the date which we could have cancelled the booking and received some sort of refund. While I feel I was very communicative and clear about our request.
I recommend the property as it is lovely (as described earlier), but I would advise the host to better communicate such matters to guests in a more timely matter.
Christina