We arrived at Margot's place and settled in, the location was excellent and it was a great price. Lovely views of the river and walking distance to the log cabin as well as a number of other restaurants. The train station is 5 mins away as well, so overall very convenient. Unfortunately, our trip turned quite negative moving forward. Margot cancelled our upcoming 3 week booking with very little notice leaving us homeless and scrambling for accommodation. We are a family of 4, two little kids under the age of 2.5. Margot was aware that we were currently renovating our house and that we were relying on her accommodation to house us during this time. When we spoke she told me "that's not my problem, I owe you nothing." She went further to say that there were plenty of airbnbs or we could stay with our family. Due to timing (when it was cancelled), it was school holidays and availability was minimal and triple the price. It also was not an option for us to stay with our family. Margot said she was cancelling on us because we trashed her house, and then she later communicated that she wanted to get some work done to the house. So it was more convenient to cancel our stay. She mentioned a couple of things that she considered trashing her house. There were crumbs on the couch and on the floor. The microwave wasn't wiped down, there was some dirty cutlery and that we hadn't cleaned the cobwebs in the outside area. I have never in my entire time staying in multiple airbnbs's been expected to clean cobwebs. I stripped all the beds, folded blankets, cleaned the fridge and cupboard etc. All my reviews previously have been extremely positive. I also had a cleaner come twice during our 4 week stay. I would agree with Margot, there were some crumbs throughout the living/dining/kitchen but the vacuum provided didn't work very well. All cutlery and plates were run through the dishwasher, I would suggest that the dishwasher be serviced or replaced if the cutlery remains dirty after washing.
Just an FYI, if you plan on staying at this place for a longer term stay, the TV is not a smart TV so you are unable to stream anything. Not an issue for a weekend stay, but could be if you are here for a longer period.
Additionally, we were left with only the power points working in the kitchen (the whole remainder of the house wasn't working, including the internet for 2.5 days). The kids' rooms were cold, and they woke up throughout the night and I wasn't able to work from home as planned. This was very inconvenient considering my office is in Pyrmont. I understand issues like this happen and they can be unforeseen and can take time to fix, but it was sadly an added challenge that we experienced.
Lastly, we realised we left some items behind at the airbnb, Margot was unresponsive for 4 days when requesting to organise a time for us to come and collect (we had to escalate to airbnb). Finally, we heard back and to Margot's credit, she offered to return them to us by dropping our belongings at a family member's house (we offered numerous alternate times to pick the items up ourselves). They dropped most items yesterday and we are awaiting our final belongings today. She also offered us another airbnb later on, but it was about 25 mins from the original Airbnb and the offer came too late. I was also not willing to stay at one of Margot's properties again due to all the issues we experienced.
I've read other negative reviews for Margot and her property, her response is always very defensive to anyone who has not said something positive (I expect this will be the same for me). I have no doubt that many people have enjoyed a lovely stay at Margot's place, as I mentioned it's a great location with a lovely outlook, but unfortunately we have had a very negative experience.