Very disappointing experience
Firstly, for the cost of this property, I would seriously advise booking elsewhere. When we arrived, the state of the property was dirty, lacking basic necessities and uncomfortable. The lift is shared between the property next door and does not work properly. There are over 80 steps in the property, 90% of which have to be climbed to utilise the living and eating spaces.
Upon our arrival at the property, we were met by Dan, the on-site property assistant. He had a kettle and other items with him to put in the home, but he had clearly not checked the state of the property before we arrived. He was unable to show us how to use the various light switches in the property. After check-in, we began to notice that the property had not been cleaned. For example, the bunk room had yoghurt strewn about the walls and bed with the yoghurt container remaining in the room. There were black bunches of hair twisted in the soap dispenser. There was pipe sealing wax left on a wooden chopping block in the downstairs kitchen. There were long black hairs throughout the property and in some of the bed linen. The cot provided for our child had small toys throughout it (a choking hazard), had no linen and stains all over it. Upon arrival there were 4 cups for use within the whole property. Only 4 of the 12 guests staying at the property could have a drink at one time, unless they were drinking out of wine glasses, which there were an adequate amount of. The lift only worked on certain levels -- you would push the button, call for it, and not see the lift. Ever. This meant you could not use the lift from the ground level (entrance) to level 3 (kitchen and eating area). There were dirty towels throughout the property. These issues meant that two bedrooms were not usable until they were cleaned.
Once we alerted Dan and Lavinia to the issues they were receptive but unable to do anything until the following day. The next day they sent an additional cleaner and a professional lounge cleaner to the property. We were then expected to be on site to explain to the cleaners what needed to be cleaned. We wasted part of our holiday having to wait for the cleaners to arrive to show them everything that needed to be cleaned around the house. As the lounge had to be professionally cleaned we were not able to use it for 2 hours.
Originally Lavinia agreed that we would be able to get a refund and find alternate accommodation. But then quickly changed her mind and only offered a refund for the first night's stay (which we have still not received). We paid over $7000(Australian) for 5 night’s stay -- if we were financially in a position to forfeit those funds to Lavinia and pay for alternate accommodation, we would have done so.
Aside from the above very serious issues the property lacked comfort. For example one of the beds was very unstable and moved significantly while sleeping on it. None of the beds had top sheets. All of the pillows throughout the property were cheap and clumpy. There were no blankets available anywhere in the home; we had to ask for additional blankets from the property assistant, which he did ultimately provide. The clothes lines were broken. The baby gates provided were not secure and would open upon being pushed. Due to the manager Dan not knowing how to use the lights we spent a significant amount of time each evening trying to figure out how to turn on and off various lights within the house.
The hot tub also did not get…hot. We woke up one morning to turn the hot tub on. The guide book on site said it should take around 4 hours to get up to a good temperature. 7 hours after we started it, the hot tub was only at 30C -- no one wanted to get in because it was still cold. We didn’t even get to use one of the highlighting features of the property.
One positive is the location. It is a short 5 minute walk to Camps Bay. The property management staff were also available via WhatsApp message to address any problems -- but the property manager, their assistant, and the on-site property manager each can handle different issues, which we found frustrating.
All in all, having to stay at this accommodation very negatively impacted our holiday. What was meant to be a restful family reunion became a cleaning frenzy and very stressful few days.