Finest Retreats - The Noel at Lesceave

Bed nothing else.

Poorly maintained property towel rail and dishwasher didn't work. Furniture looked like it was from a junk shop.

What a charming, bijou place - perfect for a cosy retreat. The bed was very comfy. It was very peaceful. Well-equipped kitchen. Stunning location.

It was cold at times. There was no hot water initially (except the shower, which worked fine), but this was sorted out - amazingly, the owners managed to find a plumber in the middle of Christmas, who quickly fixed it. Impressive.

Location is amazing, just a few minutes walk onto the beautiful beach and coastal path. Bed really comfy.

The track down to the property needs some attention. There's a speed bump as soon as you leave the main road to the property's track and it has a massive pot hole right up to the speed bump; a heart sinker for you're car wheels and under carriage! Property needs a deep clean; we opened the door to a face full of cob webs and you could see on ceilings and in corners bundles of cob webs. We arrived on a day when there was snow falling and the heating hadn't been turned on in the property for our arrival - it was freezing and took 24 hours after we turned the heaters on to warm through - not a very welcoming start. The electric towel radiator in the bathroom never worked the whole of our stay, so getting towels dryed was difficult. The dishwasher was full of mould. We thought we'd run it empty to clean it through but it was stuck on a cycle so couldn't use during out stay. Mould in the bathroom - could easily be resolved with some specific cleaning products. The free view TV wasn't working for live TV as not connected to an aerial - this would be beneficial to look at for guests. We couldn't use our Netflix log in as a previous guest had converted the language into German and we couldn't revert it back to English; luckily we had our iPad with us so used that for TV in the evenings. There's a locked door off the bedroom to another room of the owners which during the night between 2am and 4am there was some kind of nocturnal animal scratching and gnawing on the door which woke us up each night which was a shame as the bed was really comfy. We didn't see the owners or any reps of the owners during our stay for us to discuss the issues with but did leave notes for the housecleaner. This could be a great little get away if some major TLC could be given to it to spruce it up.

We can’t comment on anything we liked, as the events mentioned in the next question, far outweigh anything good we had to say about our stay!

We accidentally left the key in and locked ourselves out the cottage, but didn’t realise till we returned to the cottage about 6.30pm after hiking all day. We rang the agent (Finest Retreats) who didn’t have a spare key, and they couldn’t get hold of the housekeeper, who they thought might have a spare key, but it turned out the next morning, that they didn’t have a spare key either!! We were told by the agent that we would have to ring an emergency locksmith to get the lock changed that night, or book a hotel for the night, as there was no spare key at all! We’d already sat in the car, in the dark, for about 2 hours waiting to hear from the agent if the housekeeper had replied, and so the idea of waiting even longer for an emergency locksmith to come and change the locks was unbearable. It was gone 8pm by this time and the emergency number we were ringing the agent on, was not manned after 8pm and so we were left stranded! We had no choice but to drive to a Premier Inn not far away that, luckily, had rooms available, and book in for the night. We had none of our belongings, only the clothes we stood up in! We were so tired and hungry, as we’d bought food back to the cottage with us to cook dinner; this all had to be thrown away as there was no fridge to keep it in overnight. For the agents and the housekeeper not to have a spare key to a property being let to the public is ludicrous! Because of this, we (a couple in our 60’s) had to pay £63 to stay the night in a hotel, because the cottage we had paid to stay in had no spare key! The agents refuse to reimburse us for the night we didn’t sleep in the cottage, let alone pay for the hotel room, that we had to book because they couldn’t let us in to a property they were responsible for letting. In their terms & conditions, unbeknown to us, it states that if you get locked out of a property, it is your responsibility to pay a locksmith to replace the locks! Unbelievable!