Let me start with the good. The house, correction unit was immaculate and beautifully decorated. It was clean with all you could need. It would’ve been the perfect much needed holiday after lockdown, however it was not meant to be. We booked the property using the instant book function after our originally booked property had to cancel due to storm damage that day.
Coast and Country Getaways who manage the house are exactly as per their google reviews - atrocious, money hungry and terrible communication. They accepted our booking stating that the house was unaffected by storms. Took full payment upfront. A couple of hours before checkin they called and said actually the property was now with no power but it would be restored later that evening. We accepted that and checked in. The power did not come back, we were assured it would return the next afternoon. The owners came to check on us. They were lovely and empathetic to our situation with two young kids under 6, offering us a little led light and candles while we settled in for a night with no power - no lights, no hot water, no appliances including fridge so we couldn’t keep any food there and no power to charge phones. Glen from Coast and Country Getaways ensured me that he was working on a discount for that night. The next afternoon we called the power company to ascertain whether the power would be repaired that evening and they were clear that they were a long way off being repaired. We called Glen, who as per usual from our communication this far, was cold and unsympathetic. We wanted to stay longer as we’d waited so long for this holiday, however we couldn’t justify paying the high fees for a house with no power. We asked if a discount would be offered if we were to stay another night and he became argumentative saying if we didn’t like it we could leave. He said no discount was going to be offered for the night stayed and no discount would be offered if we were to stay and wait it out until the power returned. It was obvious he couldn’t care less about the situation we were in and was only thinking of his pockets. Of course we had no choice but to leave given the situation.
Coast and Country Getaways wouldn’t respond to Airbnb’s attempts to contact them and resolve the situation and were appalled at the treatment we had received. We got the discounted night and money returned for the rest of the stay from Airbnb, however the treatment we received ruined our holiday that we were so desperately needing. Glen has no customer service skills and should not be working in a position with a holiday rental company. We would highly advise the owners not to use these property managers. The unit was amazing but the service was unacceptable. If only we had read the reviews of this company first as we would not have booked.