Despite its lovely location and good size living environment, The Old Signal House is extremely worn and tired and this is really disappointing considering we have paid over £2000 for one week. We enjoyed our holiday and spent our week making memories, but we had lots of concerns over cleanliness and maintenance of the house.
The entrance carport is in dire need of cleaning. I have photos of this and the dirty windows; the wasps’ nest and the spider webs etc and it is a shame I cannot upload them here. I will try to add them to Tripadvisor, so please take a look before booking. The games room is terribly rundown, as is the outside of the property, which is a long way off the video promoting this house on the websites. The settees are also way passed their best in the living room with all of the springs gone, which made it difficult to relax in the evenings. The house is marketed as accommodating 9 people, although I would argue that the 9th bed is only really suitable for a small child on a mezzanine level. We put up with the woodlice and spiders throughout the house, but the windows are covered in finger/hand/face prints and had clearly not been cleaned for weeks. This is a concern with Covid safety.
I’m not sure how often you review or view your properties and it is a concern that you take no responsibility for this misinformation. So I would urge you to investigate further to prevent future families facing the disappointment we have. We contacted the agent, Island Homes, whilst we were on our holiday who simply passed our complaints onto the owners who agreed that the house was in need of more maintenance and said they would be replacing the settees at the end of the season. This clearly didn't help us! Seeing as though there was a complaint about the settees in October 2020, I am not convinced that this will happen. Accepting our 'constructive criticism' is no compensation. This was also the response from the owner: 'We accept that some parts of the property are looking a little tired, but against that the rent reflects value for money for a very large light house, all en suite, in a really exceptional location.' This is suggesting that because the rent was lower than other 4 bedroom houses, we should just expect and accept that it isn't up to standard! Island Homes took no responsibility for the complaint at all and continue to market the house.
However, some other reviews on this house claim that they 'love' it and want to return and I'm pleased for them. We clearly expected to stay in the house as it appeared online in the pictures and video and I want anyone who is booking this house to appreciate that it is far more rundown than is being suggested in this media.