Willowbank, Ayr

We booked this property from Monday – Friday and it looked lovely on the website. Spacious and comfortable with enough rooms so the kids could have a room each. I will start with the positives before mentioning anything else. The house interior is beautiful, spacious rooms, high ceilings, large space kitchen, very lovely and has been modernised with all the essential appliances. However, that’s as far as the positives go for our experience. We travelled from Lincoln which took around 6-7 hours with 2 kids. We arrived on site and there was no parking, which wasn’t initially a problem because we were told there was street parking, on arrival we saw a sign on said street parking that read ‘’resident permit holders only 10am – 5pm’’ so I wondered up the street to other cars that were parked on the street and they had valid permits, I went back into the property and looked around for a permit that the owner may have left out for visitors to use whilst they were staying at the property but couldn’t find one. We phoned the owner who was difficult to reach as it took several attempts to get through, eventually the owner answered and we enquired regarding the permit. The owner explained that there is no permit – she’s had the property for many years and nobody has ever had a fine. We explained that we can’t afford to pay fines everyday of our holiday because this wasn’t stated on the booking. The owner explained that if we do get a fine then send it to her and she would settle this. The owner also explained that we could open the back gates which are tough to open and park in the garden, not ideal but better than getting fines everyday, so we did that. As we were unpacking, the kids explained to us that the TV wasn’t working and none of the lights are turning on, so we investigated and sure enough all appliances were switched off but on at the wall, we thought this was strange so we tried the microwave, toaster, cooker and fridge but they were all off. We tried to contact the owner but no response so we then found the fuse box and one of the switches had tripped, no problem so we flicked it back up and everything was on, problem solved.. or so we thought as half an hour later they were off again, we did the switch again and decided to go to bed. The next morning we woke up and everything was off again, slightly annoyed we went to the fuse box and as we flicked the switch for the electrics, the switch sparked and banged very loudly. This was a scary moment as if we were to continuously do this, it could cause sparks to go into the electrics and potentially cause a fire. This was a huge hazard, so we contacted the owner immediately and explained the situation, she apologised for this and explained that she would try and arrange to get an electrician out as soon as possible. As lovely as that was, we were then told that the electrician will not enter the property without someone within the property, So we had to cancel an entire days plans waiting for the phone call for the electrician, we got a phone call from the owner, when we got the phone call, I ran back to the property to let the electrician in so he could fix the problem. We couldn’t go very far or arrange anything for this day as we were on standby for the electrician to arrive. The electrician came and basically deemed the property a danger to stay in saying it needed immediate work with floor boards being ripped up but finally managed to temporarily fix the problem after an hour and a half and everything was up and running again… or so we thought. We arrived back at the property later that evening and everything was off again, however it was a different switch that had tripped this time named ‘sockets’ so we tried to flick it up but it sparked and bang loudly again. Once again, back to square one. Luckily the upstairs electrics were on and working so we could charge our phones and light the rooms, however the upstairs bathroom light would not turn on due to the electrics being off so we had to use the toilet in the dark. We had to make our coffees and teas in the bedroom by taking the kettle upstairs, again not ideal. We had bought food for the holiday so we didn’t have to dine out and save money, however as the electricity was off, so was the fridge, freezer, microwave and toaster. Almost £60 worth of food gone to waste or had to be put in the bin because of this. We contacted the owner who apologised and informed us that she will arrange another electrician to come out on Friday (the day we leave). The owner explained that she would offer a partial refund for the inconvenience which we thought was a nice gesture. As the electrics weren’t working, we had to entertain the kids with whatever we could find on our phone in our bedroom and prop it up with the quilt as television wasn’t an option. It was later that evening that was the cherry on the cake, we thought that although we don’t have electrics, we can give the kids a bath and have a shower. Unfortunately, as we went to the boiler we noticed that this too was off due to the electrics, therefore we were unable to wash or wash the kids which was deeply upsetting that I was unable to just give them a basic need. The next morning, the owner contacted us and explained that the partial refund we would receive would be £75.00. However, as we have spent £460 on the property and it being nearly £100 a night to stay there, the partial refund didn’t sit well for all the inconveniences. We explained and expressed our disappointment with this offer and although we understood that none of the issues we faced were within her control, we would expect at least a 50% refund. The owner ceased communicating with us after this and went through the letting agency Sykes Holiday Cottages. We contacted Sykes who we expressed our disappointment and dissatisfaction towards. Sykes reviewed the issues and explained that the owner has increased her offer to £85.00 for the inconveniences. Still not satisfied with this, we explained that 50% would be the least we would accept. We then received communication from Sykes to explain that the owner has expressed her full and final offer is £100.00 and will be taken off the table by the following Friday. We were informed by Sykes that the best option would be to go to the Small Claims court to see if we could escalate it that way. After doing some extensive research, it states clearly on the Sykes Holiday Cottages website in the terms and conditions, section 17 ‘’Promises the owner makes to you about the property and Rental Services’ – 17.1.4 – The property is properly maintained, clean, tidy and in good repair at the start of the Holiday Period’’ - which it was not. It also states in the Holiday Let Rules and Regulations of the Sykes Holiday Cottage Website in the electrical safety segment that ‘’Faulty electrics can lead to fires, injuries and even more serious consequences, so it’s your duty of care to make sure that the property is a safe environment for guests’’ – which it was not. Furthermore, it also states ‘’You could also leave instructions/handbook for your electrical items to ensure guests use them correctly, reducing the risk of having faulty appliances’’ – which was not provided. Finally, upon researching the housing standards for rented accommodation. It states that all rented accommodation must meet the fitness standard which means the property has adequate conditions for people to live in. The minimum requirement in all rented accommodation is: Heating. Lighting. Ventilation. Hot and Cold Water. Cooking facilities and drainage. We did not have 4 out of the 6 minimum standards met during our stay. We requested that a 50% refund would be acceptable and we could deal with this matter amicably. However, having now reviewed the offer of £100 as a final offer, we are now going to push for a full refund on this experience. As a final update we contacted booking.com who was appalled at our experience and stay, however the owner of the property would not communicate or answer them, so they gave us £65 as an apology, they said the property and owner would be investigated but we are unsure how this ended, all in all an awful experience which ruined our entire holiday, would not recommend EVER.