Ethelbert Lodge - Arree Stays

Spacious and comfortable

Nothing

Clean and everything we needed

Not the most desirable street

Really spacious and good value for money. The location is a tiny bit out of the busier area, but the walk isn’t bad at all. Amazing communication from the hosts, and they even left us some gifts. I would definitely recommend to others.

Nothing - all as expected

We stayed as a group of 4 at Ethelbert Lodge over the August bank holiday weekend. The hosts were very informative, available if needed, left a welcome drink and biscuits and also kindly offered a later check out time on our final day. On first impressions, the flat was very fitting for our needs. The living/dining room and kitchen area were very well equipped, nicely furnished and we particularly appreciated the addition of an air fryer! We also found nothing was more than a 10-20 minute walk away which was fantastic.

We do feel it is important to touch on the areas that could be improved in order for those who stay in the future to have a true picture of what to expect. Unfortunately, as our stay continued we began to notice areas of the flat that were not necessarily up to the standard that we felt had been depicted in photos, descriptions and some of the previous reviews. We found several areas of damp around the flat but particularly behind the sofa where rising damp had begun to reach above the back of the sofa and also damaged the wall on the other side in the bedroom. This resulted in a fair amount of peeling paint that was very noticeable. In the bathroom, there was a large dip in the floor around the shower and the extractor fan made a very loud and screeching noise when turned on. We later read previous reviews and saw both of these concerns mentioned but they were not addressed or fixed. We felt that the response we read from the hosts was more that these things were in fact not a problem which, after experiencing them ourselves, we can say we disagree with. Although the cleanliness was good, we would not call it thorough or up to the standard we would expect of anywhere we are paying to stay at. Some examples of areas we feel could be given more attention include the mould on the shower caulking and squeegee, dusting of the photo frames and skirting, thorough checking for rubbish particularly around the sofa and replacing the kitchen sponge once it is well used. As people from a family who are hosts of an Airbnb themselves, we do not take leaving a review with criticisms lightly. We appreciate the impact this can have but feel transparency is important especially for the customer. Had we read these concerns on reviews before staying, we would not have chosen Ethelbert Lodge however we do believe that if these areas were addressed it would be a wonderful place to stay and enjoy Margate from!