Book House

Everything, we’ve stayed many times

Nothing

Convenient with all the facilities you would need.

Tea, coffee, biscuits provided in the kitchen.

The location was just under the abbey and very close to the river which was convenient for all the local amenities and attraction. The property was clean and well kept

The free street parking was only free after we left the car nearby, thankfully in a spot that had a max hour stay, the only one in the entire area we could find, to dump our gear and get into the property after a couple of phone calls to the property manager to get the correct code for the lock box, then get the pass required to park in a parking zone about half a mile away from the property. This was a lot more work and hassle than I was expecting! There are also a lot of caveats to the parking in terms of location and how it works with the town signage being poor and the instructions being lacking. The instructions provided by the property were extensive but, given the time limit, could have been useful to have a crib sheet version for getting us situated and not needing to wade through all the paperwork to figure out where to park! (for any future tenants it's anywhere up the hill in the main town (more of less)) The bins need to be emptied by the tenants too, which I wasn't expecting, and was only two days after we arrived. We didn't have anything really to chuck out so wasn't sure what to do with the rubbish when we left, except leave it in the black bag indicated in the instructions for someone else to place out the following Thursday. The free ear plugs to drown out the seagulls were a nice addition but it certainly wasn't a quiet location. The house itself was pleasant enough and the location was good but having to quickly read up on all the rules and exceptions for the town on arrival after we had trouble getting in the door and had to rush the car to another location before we got fined wasn't the greeting I was hoping for.

The location was good and the beds were comfortable

A major problem with the property is the condition of the windows. The wooden frames are rotten - I didn't dare try to open the windows. They let in a lot of draughts and in some places there are gaps between the frames and the glass. The visitors parking permit was welcome but we weren't able to use them as the parking was complete full every time we looked for a space. We had pay to park in the public car park throughout our stay - this is likely to be the case for future visitors. The boiler was not working when we arrived and though it was fixed at 9.30 that evening I would have expected it to be checked before guests arrived and probably left on a low setting so the property wasn't freezing cold on arrival. Some of the furniture is of an inappropriate size for the space. The door to one of the bedrooms did not fully open because of the carpet leaving a space of about 6 inches between the door and the bed to enter the room. When I tried to open it further it came off its hinges-judging from the state of the hinges this clearly has happened on several previous occasions. Generally the property was dusty and some of the kitchen equipment was dirty.