I was wondering if anyone else has had success / experience/advice in fighting Sykes over dipping into the Good Housekeeping Bond?
We recently booked a cottage in Co Antrim for 3 nights with Sykes (I know I know). We were told to contact owner before we arrived for key details. So I had her number and texted her. She insisted I phoned her and then made me phone her caretaker for the key box number! Anyway, the phone call to her was lengthy. Lots of detail about shops, hotels etc so on the face of it lovely (but very very long!). But she honestly went on and on about how she couldn't understand how guests couldn't work out her showers and that 'they weren't electric' as if that explained why people struggled a bit to understand them. I thought there would be some really bizarre showers and they were perfectly standard looking things on arrival. A red flag should have been her telling me three times that previous guests 'broke her combi boiler' and not to fiddle with it.
Anyway, on arrival, lovely cottage. Got in fine and caretaker lady said she'd pop round.
Went straight to showers and could not turn them on. Really really stiff, round controls on both showers. Eventually I was awfully pleased through brute strength and determination to figure out how to get them on and off. Consulted guest book and a few guests had said one bathroom smelled a bit damp and that the shower controls needed fixing so I wasn't alone Caretaker turned up and we had a jolly conversation about how stiff they were.
Each day on using the en suite sower I noticed the bathmat was very wet but hung it up, not an issue. Went and checked shower because unless you turned it off very firmly it dripped. Just dripped. Nothing more.
On returning , I got a text from the owner saying I had left the shower 'on' (her exact word which then changed to 'if you noticed it dripping you can't have turned it off properly' - which really isn't how shower valves work , now, is it??)) , made the floor sopping wet/ flooded and stained her ceilings. She alleged she had a video she could send but it wouldn't upload. I told her I most certainly had not,that her controls were stiff, the shower sometimes dripped but a drip cannot cause staining on a ceiling so she must have a leak.
Sykes had hold on our card of £300 for a Good Housekeeping Bond'. They contacted us and aid we had caused damage and when they had evidence they would contact me further. I protested and said she had a maintenance issue.
They have now sent an invoice for £240 which they have taken out of our account and 4 still, undated pictures of wet patches on a ceiling... no pics of actual wet floor, no 'on' shower video.
I am furious and am not sure what we can do next? No text conversation with the owner seemed to persuade her that she clearly has a leak. I didn't report anything while we were there as why would anyone report a slightly dripping shower or stiff controls (which she knows about and blames her customers) or look at a ceiling.
Grr.
Any thoughts from anyone on what the next step is? Any similar experiences?