Not a good choice.
We rented a cottage, Sea Spray, for a week via Brixham Cottages and it was dirty, smelt and was unsafe. The property had clearly not been cleaned properly for sometime and there was evident damp in one room which was causing a smell throughout the ground floor. The dining table was covered in sticky residue and the backs of the chairs were thick with grime. I scraped the grime from the chair and the agent simply said "well you just did that"! Talk about state the obvious, yes i just scraped grime from the seat in front of you. The cottage was in dis-repair with faulty smoke alarms (which are apparently checked weekly by the same inept housekeeper), broken window locks leaving the property insecure and rope rails up the stairs which were not secured sufficiently to take the weight of even a small child. The carbon monoxide alarm was placed in the dining room when the boiler was a full floor above, but again we were wrong as "the alarm is on the second floor" we were told!
One major issue is the Gas Safety Certificate on display was out of date by nearly 7 months. This was replaced when mentioned by one that had been done three days prior to our arrival. Oddly they still cannot produce a valid certificate for the near 7 month discrepancy as they had 'lost' their copy (oddly the old copy was still where it was placed in the property folder) and also the engineer had 'lost' theirs too....very convenient. For the record it's illegal to rent a property without a valid and in date Gas Safety Certificate.
When we contacted Brixham Cottages they agreed to come and see for themselves - yet the dirt, smell and faults were simply brushed off with "its only cobwebs", "we don't clean our windows on the inside", "i can't smell anything" followed by " we will make the landlord aware of the damp and repairs" even though the damp and repairs required could be seen on the images on their own website. If we had of looked closer we would not have made a booking into this property. They also tried to justify the cost, of which was nearly £1000 for the week, because "you are paying for the view and parking"....seriously. If that were the case we would have pitched a tent, forget the fact we expected to be staying in a clean, safe and healthy environment.
In fairness Brixham Cottages did offer twice for 'housekeeping' to come and rectify what they had clearly not done in the first place. We refused as we did not want our holiday interrupted or anyone in the property around our belongings that we did not know. Simply the housekeeper should have done the job they were being paid for in the first instance. They did also offer a £50 refund as a gesture of goodwill which we declined as we felt for the problems in the property this was not enough of a statement to back up what they feel about their business. As we refused the initial offer it was 'withdrawn'.
To sum up. The representative from Brixham Cottages took the sub standard issues way too personal and brushed them aside like it should not be a problem. For this reason I give them a One Star rating as their customer service and attitude to clear safety issues was disgusting and i'd advise anyone to book with them with caution with the understanding that they are there to take your money and any problems will be pushed back onto you.
27 September 2017
Unprompted review
