Whitby Holiday Cottages, Acacia House Review

Acacia House, Whitby (Whitby holiday cottages)



Summary



If you don't mind being woken up at 5.30am every morning by seagulls pecking at the roof and you're ok with bird poo all over your car, fixing electrical faults and telling the noisy neighbours to be quiet, then this holiday cottage is for you.



This "cottage" is in fact an ordinary mid-terraced house in an ordinary residential street. Some of the other houses on the street are also holiday "cottages".



My recommendation then for anyone wanting to holiday in Whitby would be to get a place slightly further out and drive in each day. (or perhaps get the train if you can find somewhere near one of the other stops on the NYMR line).



Major issues:



1. Nesting Seagulls. I'm not sure if spring is the only nesting time for seagulls, but it certainly was when we were there. When the seagulls wake up at around 5.30am they start walking about and pecking on the dormer attic roof. This sounds like someone banging a nail in the wall to hang a picture up. It goes on for about 15 minutes or so by which time you are thoroughly awake. Basically this makes the room unusable and reduced the number of bedrooms to 3.



2. Noisy Neighbours. Next door is also a holiday "cottage" so clearly this will be different each week, but on our week they liked to slam all the doors repeatedly from 10pm to around 11.30pm. Whitby Holiday Cottages said "there isn't much we can do" and were "unable to find" phone numbers for the tenants, despite next door being managed by the same company. Fortunately after a few nights we slipped them a note and this seemed to cure the problem. Perhaps that property is also "maintained" in a minimalist way and hence maybe their doors stick as well.



3. Bird poo. As with most seaside towns there are a lot of seagulls flying about. This street (and the other similar ones around it) seem to be prime nesting sites which means that your car will get splattered every day.



4. Electrical faults. On the last evening an electrical fault developed somewhere in the house which repeatedly blew the circuit breaker in ever-decreasing times.



Minor Issues (in no particular order):



1. The welcome pack states that "you should have no trouble finding a parking space on this street". Clearly this must have been written way back in the mists of time because on the first night we were unable to park anywhere near the house and had to park 4 or 5 streets away. Fortunately you can double-park (hence blocking the road) to load & unload and other drivers seem to accept this as normal. The only realistic way of finding a space on the same street is to wait until someone else goes out and then "nip in" to their space as soon as you can. One always feels apprehensive about doing this though and indeed mid-way through the holiday I did notice a nice new key-scratch down the side of my car. However I cannot say with 100% certainty that this was done on this street.



2. The inventory is not maintained so we reported all the missing items to the agents. We were told that this was an old list and not to worry about it. So basically they have no real way of knowing who broke/stole an item or when.



3. The first floor bedroom has rugs instead of carpet, having been decorated in a "polished floorboards" style. There are a number of clusters of holes in the floorboards clearly having been made by woodworm in days gone by. There is no evidence of current woodworm activity but some of the corners of some of the boards have given way, leaving the odd inch-wide gap. (Cleverly concealed by the rugs). Personally I don't wear high heels, but if you do they may find these holes when you least expect them, risking a twisted ankle.



4. The bathroom door handle was loose and came off in my hand. Fortunately I was not locked in the bathroom by this but it may have been a different story were it one of the kids. This meant another trip to the car (a few streets away) to get my toolbox to rectify the situation.



5. Some mornings you would come downstairs to find a slug in the kitchen. So make sure you wear slippers at all times.



6. All the fixtures and fittings are obviously well-used (for example, plenty of areas where paint has chipped off) and maintenance is clearly kept to the absolute bare minimum. (EG badly fitting doors, loose shelves etc).



7. Many of the pots and pans were not clean and my guess is that this was due to the haste of the previous tenants, perhaps in their rush to get away from the nesting seagulls or electrical faults?



8. The badly-fitting front door sticks in the frame which means you have to open and close it with some force. (Hope the neighbours don't think we're slamming doors on purpose!).



9. Both concrete finials on the walls either side of the front gate are loose, which can come as a surprise when you're using them for support.



10. The front gate doesn't fit correctly and has a vertical metal rod broken at the top. Not lethal just yet but could be a serious health and safety issue if someone bends it outwards.



11. The first floor shower door seals leak if you have the shower head trained on the glass door. (Seems to be ok if you point it at the wall).



12. Loose toilet-roll holder in 1st floor bathroom. (Since I had my toolbox with me I fixed this as well). Loose toilet seat due to cheap nylon nuts being used which have now cracked.



13. Wobbly side tables in the front room due to broken supports.



14. Bent aluminium curtain rod in the back attic dormer bedroom.



15. Wrong sized plastic curtain track used in the front attic dormer bedroom, hence with both this and the previous point you can easily end up with your curtains on the floor!



16. The washer-dryer was basically useless as a dryer, (3 hours to dry a couple of pairs of jeans) but I believe this to be the case with most units of this type. Wouldn't really be worth mentioning were it not for the fact that you cannot risk hanging your wet washing outside due to all the seagulls. (You only have to look once at the poo-splattered floor outside for that decision to be made for you).



17. The property information states a barbecue is available, but it would be very risky to try cooking (or eating, or sitting) outside due once again to all the seagulls.



18. The welcome pack also states that the house will be "supremely clean" but this is not the case. It is only average and there is nothing special about the level of cleanliness. This would not be worth mentioning were it not for the fact that the welcome pack makes a point of it, hence I have done the same.



19. no internet, no phone



Plus Points:



In order to write a fair review I am listing the plus points of the house:



1. General store ("corner shop") just around the corner.

2. Nice view of the abbey from the upstairs front dormer window.

3. Interesting view of seagulls nesting on other people's roofs.

4. Most of the beds were nice & firm and the bedding was clean.

5. Only a 10/15 minute walk to the town centre and co-op (steep hills though so you have to be fit).