“We would like to complain about our stay at Longsyke in Grasmere starting from the 22nd May till 5th June.”
After a long journey from Somerset we entered the cottage and just wanted to have a cuppa and relax. Imagine our surprise when we found the kitchen dirty, finger-marks on cupboards, crumbs on one of the glass protectors and what can only be described as gunge under another, as we were told from HOTL staff prior to our stay, that due to covid the cottages are all scrupulously cleaned. This was not the case with this cottage, we felt like just leaving and going back home. As my partner has health problems we have to make sure everything is clean, and had she not been feeling well we decided to stay. The kitchen was then thoroughly cleaned and then we set about cleaning the cups, plates and cutlery that we would use throughout our stay. As we found, lots of the plates, cups etc. also had chips in them, for what we paid we find it unacceptable. Another find was the grill tray in the oven was also dirty as was a baking dish, they both had residues from being used, pictures of these were taken. There were numerous spiders webs in the place, and I know that spiders can't build the webs we found that quick. We also decided to use the vacuum cleaner and to our surprise found it took lots of dog hairs that were stuck on the carpet. Midway through the first week we used the washing machine and found the powder drawer absolutely filthy, once again we had to clean it before use. On the Friday of the first week my partner was looking in one of the cupboards and found a bread bin, when she got it out and opened it she found what was once some bread, although now it had turned into a mouldy hairy mess. My partner put it back into the cupboard but not before I took a picture of it, I will attach picture of what we found to this email. As I was out on the fells on the Saturday, my partner was walking our dog and as she was coming back to the cottage she noticed a car pull up outside and a woman with two young children got out. They went to the front door and were about to enter when she looked across and saw my partner looking at her, she stopped and asked whether she was staying there to which my partner replied yes. She said she was the cleaner and usually comes in on a Saturday to clean. My partner then told her about the things we found and the state of the place and she replied "I'm only the cleaner!" she then asked if we needed her to clean but my partner told her we had already done it and not to bother. What worried us was that we were there for two weeks and hadn't requested anyone to come. Also as some of our belongings were lying around how could she have cleaned the place with two young children with her, if she was cleaning then what would the children be doing?. On the following Tuesday we called into the Keswick branch of HOTL and spoke with a Lady called Mary who noted our concerns and said she would pass it on and also told us to email/write when we could.
