Right, it's time for a brutally honest review about this place.
Before we booked here, we saw the images and thought it was a steal for the price! The rooms looked nice, the living-room area and kitchen looked great, and a BBQ outside? We saw nothing wrong with the place (except for the CCTV in the back garden, a bit creepy and I would think that a camera in the front of the house is enough to determine whether a party is being held.. but I digress..)!
[Just some info - I visited here with me and my friends, and we stayed for 3 nights.]
A Pleasant Surprise
This place does have major highlights which would make anyone want to stay here!
- When we arrived (note that the place is very close to Manchester Piccadilly Station), check-in was very straight forward. You have a combination given to you the day before, and you put that in the padlock next to the door to gain access to the property. There are cameras at the front of the house which would probably deter anyone trying to break into this padlock.
- There is one bedroom downstairs, and the rest are upstairs. The rooms are decently sized - not spacious enough to where you can run around, but not cramped since you can have more than 3 people standing in the same room.
- The bathrooms are nicely decorated, and are both situated downstairs. If you are staying upstairs, there is a bit of a walk to get to the bathroom and back, especially if you are cold from coming out the shower but, for the quality, this can be dismissed. They kindly give you towels too for each room.
- The living-room/kitchen is where this place really shines. A large spacious living-room with a sofa which 4 people can sit on comfortably, and an extra chair for the 5th. I have absolutely no clue where anyone else would sit, but luckily we were a small group.
- The garden has no grass, but there is a grassy patch behind the garden. There is also, indeed, a BBQ, as well as an ash tray in the garden too. The heating really warms up the house too despite it being large and spacious.
- The house is extremely close to a supermarket, as well as a whole bunch of shops. Literally a 5 minute walk to buy chips, meat from the butchers and seasoning for your food!
The Sad Truth
While the place is great on paper, and first impressions were great, it was the peak of our experience at this specific place.
The issue? The place simply is not ready for people to stay in (comfortably).
- The boiler had an issue throughout the entire stay. There would be a loud, deep, scraping sound coming from the boiler every 5-30 minutes. You would have to stop any conversation you're having as you cannot hear other people over this sound. Night time? Yes. Throughout the night, the same sound would be heard. I didn't get a single day's good sleep; I can't imagine how it would be for anyone else who stays there longer than 5 days.
- Fruit flies were in abundance at this place. We would be eating in the kitchen and they would land all over our food while we are eating. Just kill them with sprays / apple cider vinegar, you may ask? Yes. We tried this. The issue is that there is a hole in the backdoor, which we assume is where the flies were coming in. The last thing we want to do when we stay at a place on HOLIDAY is deal with pests INSIDE the place.
- Before I move on, I know you're probably thinking that we should've asked Laura for assistance with these things to get them fixed.. and we DID. She promised that she would bring someone to fix the boiler. "Hi , they will be with you within the hour thanks" was the reply. We waited.. and waited. And no one came. I'm not sure why she lied about this (or even gave us an update saying that they couldn't make it). Perhaps its because we're a short stay and so she would rather save money. I'm not sure. As for the flies, we brought this up too, and it was the same story. "Thanks I will send cleaners tomorrow" was the message we got, and no cleaners came. Bear in mind we were home the entire day because we wanted to make dinner, but also wanted to get rid of the flies. Again, money saving scheme at the cost of guest experience? I don't know.
- The large, spacious living-room! "What could possibly be wrong with this living-room?!" you may ask? Soo.. you see the big sliding doors leading to the garden? THERE ARE NO CURTAINS!!! Honestly, a privacy issue with the place. Bear in mind that there ARE indeed houses that can see into the living-room, especially at night. It might not sound terrible, but it's much more creepy when you're there.
- I know this listing states it's for multiple people, but the TV is very small. If I had to guess, its a 43" TV? And when you're sitting as far back as where the sofa is, it's pretty tiny. Pair that in with if you were to play multiplayer split-screen games. You're better off playing games on your mobile phone.
- One of the shower's drain seemed to be mostly blocked. This meant that, if you showered for too long, the water would flood outside the shower. The water drains in small amounts, so there is more water coming out the shower head compared to the water being drained - of which is a clear problem, even with regards to cleanliness.
- Ok so one of the shower rooms has a drainage problem. Use the other one, you might say? Mmhm. Yep. There. Is. No. Lock.