Highly recommend staying at ANOTHER cottage at this amazing estate. Houtkapperspoort has super friendly staff, is secure and has breathtaking views. The surroundings are magnificent and the atmosphere is easy and calm... ...BUT this particular house really, really needs attention and a handyman in action.
We stayed in the cottage for 28 days in october and have gotten to know the place very well.
Rodents live IN the roof and make a lot of noise whilst they take out the insulation materials. Owner is notified but took no action to make our stay and sleep more comfortable.
We, the house, the bed, everything has been covered in bugs that came out of ceiling one day. We had the spray the whole house and all it's content with a chemical and leave the house for several hours. Owner said is was a common bug...
When we arrived the heater downstairs was still broken. The dishwasher was also still broken. For both it took a week to repair. Consider the fact that there is no air condition in this cottage. We stayed here begin october and when the sun came through, the bedrooms became really hot.
Faucets hang loose, toilet paper holders are detached from the wall, toilet brushes are missing / are laying on the ground with the cup missing, lampshades have water stains on them or are simply broken, there is black mold in the bathroom and windows can't be opened or when opened can't be shut. The backdoor can't be completely opened, the fridge has a missing shelf so it is just an open space, the house caters six person's but the kitchen doesn't. The frying-pan's (1 small and 1 big) are rusty and have severe scratching on the non-stick coating. There is one huge pan and a small pan and thats it. The oven is very old, the baking trays rusted and the oven door doesn't close one so it is steamy and hot to the touch. The diner table is way to high for the benches around it.
Curtains upstairs are very dirty and have a black haze on them. One curtain could not even be opened, owner did not care to answer my message or fix this. There are no screens for the windows so they can't be left open to air when in the house; animals or bugs will enter the house.
The deck chairs are old and fall apart. I am 55 kilos and fell through one whilst normally sitting down on it. One other chair had a piece break off as soon as I picked it up to put it somewhere else.
Beds are very firm but sleep well. Bedlinnen on the master bedroom had moldstains on them, but in the other rooms it was all good. There is a crib for the baby but no bedlinnen for it.
As said, i would recommend the park. But the cottage hasn't been given any love in a long time. This cottage is an investment by the owner who care about the money coming in. The state of the cottage and way of communicating show that there will be done as less effort as possible to keep guests coming