Host & Stay - Sunflower Cottage

We had a great stay at Sunflower cotage. It’s beautiful - the photos don’t do it justice! It’s spacious and modern and the location is perfect (only a few mins walk into the centre of Seahouses).

We had some trouble figuring out the air source heating controls (some more detailed instructions would have been useful). And we were disappointed the RV car charger didn’t work as it was a feature listed in the accomodation details at the time of booking.

keys were in the key safe as arranged. The spare key (inside the property) didnt fit the door lock, so we only had one key.

On the first morning, we didnt have any hot water, after 40 minutes trying to get this going we rang a number through Booking.com, this was sorted out within hours, despite this I received 3 emails from Host and Stay saying this would be dealt with (after being sorted), the last email was on the evening before we left, very poor communications at Host and Stay.. The dishwasher didnt work, after 2 hours in total trying to get it to work, we let Host and Stay know and were told someone would come, would we leave a key in the keysafe, we did. No one came in the 5 days we were staying. Reading the reviews the dishwasher didnt work in May, July or September, this is October and it didnt work. The property lacked basic things, tea pot, milk jug, a toast rack, there was only one hand towel upstairs for 4 people, bare minimum toilet rolls, etc etc with a little more thought basics could be improved. We are still looking for the hairdryer - is there one? We were also surprised to be asked for a "waiver" fee before being given the key safe code to enter the property, this was after we had paid in full and within days of our arrival, this was unacceptable and would have been better included into the rental charge at the outset then we would have known the total cost.

2nd time staying here great location, parking out front of property, spacious rooms, modern and comfortable furnishings and very clean

A little bit pricey compared to others similar but still ok and wouldn’t put us off booking again

Very modern clean spacious and everything you needed for a lovely stay … very central to town centre and amenities…. Bedrooms were very roomy plenty bedding and pillows…. kitchen is well stocked with utensils

The mattresses on all the beds really need looked at … a good nights sleep goes a long way to a happy stay The dishwasher wasn’t working which was a biggy bug bear for us as a family as none of us likes to wash dishes as we like to cook and eat in I also find the waiver should be included into the initial cost not sent out 10 days b4 you are due to go on holiday it really upset me that we paid a £25 waiver to cover breakages and the main things we needed weren’t working !!!!

The property management company, Host & Stay, is deeply dishonest with their practice. At the time of writing, under the "important info" section in the accommodation, the "damage waiver" is described as "fully refundable". It's only in the rarely-read long description of the property that a obscure mention of "subject to an administration charge" which is in contradiction to a much more prominent "fully refundable" mention in "important info". This is an absolutely reportable act of mislead, and despite my complaint to them over chat, one week later this misleading statement remains unchanged, and they refused to refund us the 10 pound "admin fee". This damage waiver is also not a standard practice in most places that we travelled to. While we were travelling we neglected to submit the damage waiver payment and only realised that we had to pay it near the end. By the time we paid it, it was 4pm local time. We never got the key safe information even when we arrived. We arrived at the property around 5.30pm, and the key safe information never came through. We did not have any working phone (only had internet data) and the only contact was an after-hours generic contact centre. I had to borrow a phone from a local grocery store's worker, was left "on hold" for a good five minutes; fortunately it was eventually answered and I was given the key safe over the phone. I am deeply unhappy that this "damage waiver" was a ransom to accessing the accommodation that we had already paid non-refundable fee for; and when we neglected to pay it during our busy travel, we almost had to fear for being locked out in gloomy cold country UK. Absolutely horrifying and deeply disappointing practice. The rest of the house was ok but we were left with very, very sour note on the last leg of our travel.

Quiet location and very close to shops restaurants and Seahouses town and harbour. All within easy walking distance. Property was spacious, well equipped and comfortable. Large grassed rear garden.

Nothing of note.

It was a beautiful house. Very tastefully decorated. The location was great, very near the shops and not far from the harbour

The double bed upstairs was not very comfortable, it could do with a mattress topper. The shower upstairs produced very lukewarm water. We only had one hot shower at the beginning of the week and after that the water never seemed hot

Very spacious, exceptionally clean. Lovely house for a short break

We had no complaints