UNPLEASANT HOLIDAY EXPERIENCE. I normally avoid saying anything negative about my stays and I realise other guests had given favourable reviews on the property. However, my experience is so different, borne out of how the host reacted and responded when told of a problem at her property.
My family stayed 2 nights at this property in July 2021. When we checked in, the ducted heating could not be turned on. We alerted the host immediately. While unexpected issues like this can happen, what we didn’t expect is a difficult host who didn’t show concern or immediacy to resolve the problem. Her first response was to say we did something wrong and warned us not to use personal electrical appliances or bbq, kids shouldn’t be touching buttons etc. After assuring her that we did none of that, we emailed her an image of the heater panel clearly showing an ‘error 65’ (indicative of a fan motor locked out) and called her to arrange for an electrician/technician site-visit. I was thrown off when she said ‘it would be too expensive’ as it was the weekend! Sure enough, no technician showed up, only the manager who was kind and commented that it was a cold night but he couldn’t fix the heater. At our insistence (host or manager didn’t offer), we were given Kmart column heaters, enough to cover bedrooms but left the living areas and kitchen freezing. By the evening of day 2, still no follow up from the host except an inappropriate comment from her that “who would stay indoors on a sunny day”. Mind you, the temperature was skirting the 10c range on this day. No ducted heating throughout the stay, which was very uncomfortable during winter. In the end, we purchased additional portable heaters at our own expenses to heat up the house as overnight temperatures fell to 1c. I might add that the property could benefit from a refresh as physical wear was evident. Plates were plenty but only one bowl was provided, and there was no ovenproof crockery. Might be nice if beds are covered rather than flat sheets being left on the beds for guests to fit! House is clean except the upstairs tv room where ant trails could be seen on the worn carpet (vacuum cleaner was old and with suction power of a toy). For the price, I will stay with a superhost next time.