The Curlews - Waterside, boutique home with 10 person spa

We stayed at the Curlews for 3 days this December with our extended family (8 adults, 2 toddlers and a baby in total). The house is in a fantastic location (very close to town and all the amenities you need but far enough to feel out of the way) and has spectacular views. The house naturally frames every view point excellently and is incredibly spacious. Despite our booking being over the weekend, the owners responded to every phone query right away. They were friendly and attentive. There was a drainage issue when we stayed but we only discovered it was affecting the whole house on day 2 out of 3 following a late night family conversation haha (big house, many rooms, sinks and bathrooms). We contacted the owners right away and they were able to arrange for a plumber to come round the next day as we were checking out of the property. It wasn't ideal that the plumber came at check out time (things were overwhelming enough with all the adults and toddlers we were trying to wrangle to ensure we left at the 10am check out time) however, it showed the owner's commitment to ensuring issues were attended to as soon as possible. I'm sure if we stayed another night, we would have appreciated it.

It's incredibly unfortunate but we think the house is being massively let down by the cleaning service or arrangement. We read a few reviews referring to this but thought they were being too harsh. As I write this, I truly hope the owners do not think this is an attack but friendly feedback to revisit their cleaning arrangements. We found clusters of dead bugs, many cobwebs in corners in rooms, underwear from previous visitors in one of the rooms, dirty dishes in cupboards (food dried on dishes, rings around glass wear etc) and the list goes on. We're not fussed about wear and tear and scruff marks on walls but I think the aforementioned are things you do not expect to see when booking a luxury property such as this. This is a great shame because the house itself is amazing with amazing views in a lovely, friendly town. The owners are very responsive and kind. I hope they're able to sort this out as it greatly impacts the enjoyment of the property. Oh also, if possible, it would be great to have some more dishwasher tabs for visitors who thoroughly enjoy cooking (for 10 people ) and cleaning up after themselves. We went through the amount that was left despite doing a lot of the washing up by hand which led us to believe they weren't enough for cooking and eating with the amount of people in the booking. I will caveat this with the fact that this is first world problems and we never told the owners about this but I'm sure if we did, they would have arranged to give us more dishwasher tabs. I'm only writing this here for their attention :) - for the owners attention: we tried to clean up all the plates before leaving but we'd loaded up the dishwasher with the last tab, washed as much by hand and had used up the counter space. We were waiting for the dishwasher to finish up before placing the last few glasses and plates in but we had to leave to respect the check out time.

The location was amazing, hosts were very understanding and helped us whenever we had an issue, even went out of their way to help further than needed. Despite an issue with a door handle, which was down to wear and tear, everything was perfect. The door handle was even fixed whilst we were there. My family loved it and we would 100% go back.

Nothing at all. Loved the house, loved the area and loved the neighbours.

The views from the property across the water were excellent. The hot tub was a family favourite and large enough to enjoy. The open plan kitchen and outside dining areas were great and well laid out. The whole place was well designed, and fairly modern. Useful wine cooler and plenty of fridge freezer space. Decent local supermarket and the beach and main promenade isn't too far in a car. Plenty of local wildlife including morning visits from deer in the field next door.

The property is on a steep hill with tricky access for larger vehicles. We had 3 cars all together so you need to ensure you have a good handbrake! The main road was too busy to walk along with a dog and the grandchildren so I recommend using the car. We had a lot of bugs especially woodlice inside the bedrooms of the property but as we were leaving this was being rectified.

the house was very well equipped for a family stay, all decoration, bedding and pillows were excellent. We had a few problems which didn't spoil our visit.

There were some cleaning issues, I spoke to the owner who offered to call the cleaner back which I declined as I didn't want anyone there when we around. When you are paying £350.00 for cleaning this is not acceptable, especially as I had rung Fresh Escapes before we went to say that I would not be happy if I had to clean the BBQ and outside area, these areas were not cleaned the BBQ was disgusting.

The property itself, views, kitchen, outside space inc hot tub, everything was amazing.

Nothing! The driveway was quite steep - it was absolutely no problem for us but worth mentioning.

The view, the space, comfort of the beds

- Arriving at the property and cleaners hadn't been. - Having the inconvenience of the cleaners clean the place after check in time, where we had to either leave again or sit on one small part of the big property while they cleaned it. - Have water leaking from the conservatory window making a tiled floor very slippery. - Ants in the downstairs bunk bed room. - Didn't have access to the hydropool hot tub (one of the main reasons we booked this place) for the entire stay as the heating pump failed and everytime the hot tub tried to heat up, it would trip the power. - Power tripping out on the first evening, so we couldn't cook the evening meal and had to sit around the dinner table with a single lamp and have the extra expense of getting a takeaway. (we found out after eating on the first night that the hot tub wasn't usable as that was the cause of the power tripping out) - Found out that the gas bbq didn't work and just had to cook food normally under a grill. - wifi/Internet disappear an hour into the stay, never to be fixed Host did come to the property day after check in to help with issues. Said nothing could be done about the window leak. Couldn't fix Internet. Heating pump couldn't be replaced as bank hol weekend. Brought ant spray with them. Host said that we'd be "sorted out and taken care of' The Cleaning company confirmed they would refund the host, so we'd get the cleaning fee back. Easter Sunday was when we found out bbq wasn't working. Host suggested we go and buy a bbq and they'd reimburse us. After stay ended, host offered 20% refund plus the cleaning fee. We agreed on an amount and instead of refunding back the agreed way, host instructed booking.com to action refund - then booking.com deducted some money from our compensation as there was a 'promotion' on our booking. Neither host nor booking.com took ownership of the situation, kept pointing me to the other party.

Absolutely stunning views everywhere you go in the house, stunning facilities all round, beautiful hot tub , fantastic balcony space - sensational all round.

Nothing.

Everything