Holiday Cottage Nightmare

[AuntySandrasDauphinois]

Please can someone tell me what you would do in this situation?

We arrived at our (much anticipated) holiday cottage yesterday to find that it absolutely stinks. I have febreezed every surface so many times and it still stinks. It's worse downstairs but still absolutely awful upstairs, so bad that I struggled to get to sleep last night. We have been out all day today and just got back and honestly I want to cry. More than £1000 we've paid for the week!

I spoke to the woman in the local shop (when I was buying the febreeze!) and she told us some of the local lads had been putting fish through the letterboxes of any known holiday lets. There was nothing to suggest that's what it was but the smell is very fishy/putrid. The village doesn't feel very welcoming to visitors- she also said last year someone had the wing mirrors broken off their car outside overnight!

The Cornish cottage company have been no help whatsoever- the woman laughed down the phone and told us the fish were an urban legend. There's no way to take a photo of the smell to try to claim a reduction. I don't even know if I can last the week. Currently sat in the garden having a glass of wine but I'm dreading having to go inside.

If anyone has any suggestions bar more febreeze please please let me know. I'm trying to be lighthearted about it but I'm devastated. We drove for 6 hours to get here, I'm so exhausted with it.

Open windows and doors. Get the owners to bring in an ozone machine/ Air purifier. Fabreze only masks smells, see if they can get Oust which neutralises odours.

It could be cooking smells from previous guests, I have had that before and it was so difficult to get the smell out. You could boil a lemon in a pan, try bicarbonate of soda in sashes around the room

I'm so sorry this is happening for you. What a disappointment.

Cornwall does want tourists. I live here and of course they do. Where are you? I have not heard of any village where locals have been mean to tourists. Behing their backs maybe but that's a minority.

The cornish are funny buggers

be sure to leave an honest review on Facebook, tripadvisor, wherever you can

People trying to shame the OP for renting in Cornwall, off you fuck. If she'd gone abroad there'd be people telling her about her carbon footprint or asking why she isn't supporting the local economy. If she'd booked a hotel people would be piling in to suggest she should have supported a local family - honestly all this sanctimonious tutting and blaming is pathetic. If you don't want to go on holiday, fine. Most of us do, thanks. Including the people of Cornwall who rely heavily on tourism .

Right, OP. I hope you have found your rage. I would have emailed last night demanding someone come to the property immediately and warning them that it is not habitable and you will be seeking a full refund and alternative accomodation with immediate effect. Any sniggering and I'd have been straight onto social media.

How are you getting on and sorry it's all turned out so shit.

This sounds awful. I hope you've spoken to them and resolved it now

I would call the local newspaper and ask can they have a reporter sent out then call the company and explain you want a full refund and someone to call up to speak to you and the reporter. I once couldn’t get a manager to give me a refund on a faulty item do I got a reporter to speak to me and I went back and I spoke to the manager and I explained what I had done and could I have his full mane so they got the right spelling when it went in the local payers. Suddenly it was of course you can have a refund and within 10 minutes or less it was resolved. worked out for me. That should get them to take you seriously don’t let them get away with it. If the smells that bad I would sleep outside or even in the car get photos of that plus go on face book and go on the review sites as they will then have to reply to your complaint. I can bet they don’t want the bad publicity and it will work wonders. Call again asking their name and job role as you will be needing it for the reporter's and just watch their change of opinion. Let us know how you get on.

@AuntySandrasDauphinois
Reminds me of this :

Is it possible it is spilled milk somewhere ?

Remember reading about a disgruntled ex putting fish down the back of a sofa and sewing it into the lining of curtains. A long shot but ....

I had a light shade that when the light bulb heated up it melted the shade enough to cause an horrendous smell. It took me a long time to figure it out as I didnt have the light on for long usually.

Confess I haven't read the full thread but as soon as I saw Holiday cottage nightmare in 'Trending' I knew where it would be.

They don't want you there OP. You might as well go home and leave them to their views and beautiful beaches. We went there quite a few times and paid the £700 per night at the Bedruthan (not a typo) to have food thrown at us by waiting staff. (I'm talking pre-covid but obviously worse after covid.) One or two of whom were stomping around like stroppy teenagers who had been told they couldn't go to the rave they had planned at the weekend. The two women I'm thinking of definitely weren't teenagers by the way. They oozed with resentment. It was so uncomfortable.

I know it's a shitty job but so is working in a factory and the people who do that would not get away with referring their anger onto the nearest sucker who is unfortunate enough to be on their radar. Idiots who are unfortunately a necessary evil in order to keep that thing .. what is it in again? .. oh yes tourism, afloat.

The whole of Cornwall is ridiculously expensive, the people on the whole don't want you there (I was screamed at by a drunken mob because I mistakenly asked them why they had blocked me in "we LIVE here, you fucking cunt".
I would rather stay at home.

Don't get me wrong I'm lucky enough to live in a beautful part of the country and we had a lot of tourists last year, too many. But we are not courting them the way Cornwall once did. I'd probably be unhappy if I did a job which meant I couldn't afford to live where I'd been brought up and where my family and friends lived. But, you know, take it up with central or local government. Not the poor bloody idiots who have had the temerity to book a holiday down there.

This is probably a better idea than going home. How sad for you, having your holiday ruined.

Oh it was! It was bliss!!

People trying to shame the OP for renting in Cornwall, off you fuck

Quite 😂

Just wanted to see this repeated. Spot on MappyDappy. Maybe they can resurrect tin mining or something. It's such a partisan attitude. So divisive, so uncomfortable. I want to feel comfortable when I'm on holiday.

Definitely not racism Mareas. Just to put you at ease with that. They hate everybody equally.

😂😂😂

What are their occupations?

Yes, Cornwall is incredibly non inclusive, very few non whites here and equally very few come here on hols.

I love it here but hi season, don't go anywhere nr the place.

Its extremely crowded, very pricey! ffs DD just paid £10 to park her car nr a beach for the day, i ve just come back from France (off again v soon) and car parks are a euro if that and their m/way service stations are prettier and less busy.

I honestly do not know why people come here when you can go to Europe for far less and similar journey times, as anyone who has spent hours on the M5 or A303 will attest.

Cornwall tourism has a lot to learn.

Actually where I live in Cornwall we get lots of British Asian extended families visiting. It's very popular. Asians including those originating from Pakistan and India, and we get many groups of Chinese young people touring the area when they're over here studying.

This thread is fucking unpleasant

Cornwall or not, OP shouldn't have to put with this on her holiday, the housing issues in the SW are not her problem for sure.

However, some of the comments on here about Cornish people are pretty offensive and would be completely unacceptable if it were about most other people that were from, and still lived in, any other location.

I'm not Cornish, but have lived close by for decades - in the bit of NW Devon that even "Coast" misnamed as Cornwall.

But, I've yet to see a post slating the Devonians of NW Devon like it seems so ok to do about the Cornish.

But we have the same problems here, not so much the holidaymakers but the 2nd Homers, who buy the cheapest houses, then spend less and less time in them as they realize they've bought slap, bang into quite a poor area.

Leaving not only an empty house for 90% of the year - but creating another hole in community cohesion. There's one right next door to me.

@KosherDill what does their occupation matter? Theyy tax paying if you're concerned that benefits claimants don't deserve a roof over their heads. What's your occupation, salary and tax status?

I'm Cornish, I definitely don't hate anyone, so please don't make huge sweeping offensive statements Maireas and Furisgoodwhentheanimalisstillinit. Your posts have been really quite rude and unnecessary. I work in a hospital in Cornwall and spend most of my summers seeing tourists who have had too much sun, booze or injuries and certainly don't discriminate in anyway, neither do any of my colleagues.
It's terrible what has happened to OP but there is no evidence the smell has been caused by locals. I hope it is sorted soon OP

I'm Cornish and I think some of the comments on here are disgusting, I wouldn't make such comments about people from a different county, jeez anyone would think the contributors to this thread knew every single person living here.

OP hopefully you've now contacted the letting agency and your complaint has been resolved