We were met by the cleaning lady. She gave us they keys but did not explain anything to us. She did not have basic information like the wifi password. The house had not been properly prepared. One toilet was dirty (I wont describe the nature of the "dirt") and rubbish bins hadn't been emptied (one contained blood stained tissues). There was hardly any room in the fridge for our food. We were not told that a gardener would come the next day. He arrived early in the morning on Boxing Day, waking us and asking to be let in. We had no idea who he was and sent him away.

Although before arrival we were assured that all windows were curtained, one window in the master bedroom/bathroom wasn't. This issue had been raised by a previous guest. This meant that not only did we wake at sunrise, we lacked privacy. You couldn't use the toilet or shower during the day when the cleaning lady and gardener were around as you were completely exposed. This was really annoying at times, like when we returned late one morning from climbing Table Mountain exhausted and wanting a shower.

The air con didn't work. Initially we were told we had the wrong remote but the owner subsequently acknowledged it was the right one and that the unit didn't work. He installed a portable unit that was grossly under powered and made no difference. As the common areas in the house captured the afternoon sun, the heat in the house was at times unbearable. The fact that the block out blinds only covered some but not all windows compounded the problem (the block out blinds were torn in various places and the sheer curtains were water stained across the bottom which suggested that the house had been flooded)

The outside decking around the pool is rotting and as a result is uneven and breaking up.

A side door to the house would not lock as the latch couldn't be moved. This was never fixed (despite being brought to the owners attention) and meant that we slept in an unlocked house (in South Africa!)

There were various other little things. The sink in the kitchen was a bathroom sink so it was very shallow and totally impractical. Water splashed everywhere. The lights and fan above the stove didn't work (we used the torch on our phones to cook!).