Holiday disaster

[Citygirl007]

We booked a last minute holiday in UK for £450 a night for three nights. Arranged via agent, owner is abroad, property managed by agent. We had three young kids with us. Property was a victorian house.
We arrived just as cold spell hit a few days ago.
On arrival the temperature was 12 degrees and heating turned to that temperature.
managed to get heating as far as 16 degrees for the first night and it was still that temperature on first morning. To be clear, the radiators were fully working once we turned them on and heating was on non-stop. Problem we think was that property wasn't heated for a while and it took ages to warm.
Spent all first day dealing with the issues (there were few others, loo not flushimg etc).
By evening of second night, the house was at 20.5 degrees so decided to stay.
In the morning, upstairs is lovely warm, downstairs back to freezing. The massive extension has only underfloor heating so back to 16 degrees.
Kids in coats etc.
So we left 24 hrs early after spending most of the time there dealing with issues.
I obviously have documented all this via emails.
Just about to write a complaint.
AIBU -we should have sucked it up?

We have stayed in lots of period properties and never had any issue like this 🙈

Ours is set at 19c. Deffo not 16c in current cold spell where outside temp is -4!!!

Yanbu but - if your husband has reynaulds, and you're child is always cold - maybe hiring a Victorian house in the winter isn't the best idea? I would think a more modern, fully insulated property would be a more sensible choice.

Kids and husband slept in hats!

Our house is normally 16 and I wear a coat or my oodie. It's cold unless your moving about.

At 12 it's unbearable and feels no different than at 7 degrees. We experience all these temps over winter as the system is working great and full of sludge

We stayed in many victorian houses in winter, never had a problem.
It would have been ok if the base temp was at 18 let's say and then it wouldn't have taken a whole day to get to acceptable level.
Also would have expected radiators in extension, which alone was about 40sqm. Specially as lots of glass.

Well if you booked through Sykes Cottages you will get nothing back by way of refund. Terrible company.

Did you call the agent at the time and ask them to rectify the situation? It is very important that you did this - in this situation you have to the give the holiday company a chance to put things right at the time of the event.

If you kept quiet and just decided to complain when you got home it will be harder for you to get anything back.

So at 450 a night you wouldn't reasonably expect it to be warm because it's an old house? Really?

That's a bit bad. I can understand them wanting to save money on heating an empty house and my own Victorian FHL takes 48 hours to reheat if it gets too cold.

The cleaner should certainly have put the heating up before you arrived. 12 degrees is ridiculous.

We now have a base level heating of 15 which we can kick up remotely to "guest in" temperature which takes about an hour or two to achieve. Costs me a bloody fortune in heating oil and not very eco, but if we didn't, we'd get this sort of guest feedback too.

My workplace dips to 16/15 sometimes (unit in an ASN school). The maintenance guys have to come along with heaters and warm it up to 18.
That, or SLT have to send the kids home and place us in other classes that are warm enough to work in.
16 is not ok.

I was very vocal with them and it is well documented.
they kept repeating the same..
We need housekeeper to check that heating is actually on (you can tell radiator is on, it's hot to touch). At one point I said I wanted a refund and was ready to book elsewhere but no other real alternatives.
After checking with housekeeper, they needed to check with owner, who was in Far East. So more time wasted.
no common sense at all.

That's all well and good - but it's a risk. Which you have clearly now found out.

It's a risk I would happily take for the right dates and location - but I sure as hell wouldn't if someone in the party had reynaulds, unless I had a really good reason to be sure that it would be fine.

But as I said YANBU to complain.

That's not what I said.

I said I wouldn't take the risk when people in the party have issues like reynaulds. I know what Victorian houses can be like.

I also said op was not being unreasonable.

Nah...for £1350 for three nights I'd expect a warm house as standard.
Pre-heated for a couple of days before arrival if necessary.

I would expect holiday accommodation to be fit for purpose.
If you can't heat it up to acceptable standard or fit maintenance issues, don't remt it.
Bin was broken for example.
One of the loos wobbled.
The other didn't flush at all.
So really, the only loo we could use was on second floor.
One of the door hinges was loose, so door were potentially going to fly off if you smacked them hard. Husband fixed them.
It's not only just heating, the entire disaster of events.

so the heating issue is… radiators weren’t turned on before you arrived? correct?

you said the radiators worked great once you’d turned them on.

I wouldn't expect a Victorian house to be heated 'as standard' through the winter, and so I would be concerned when doing a last minute booking that it might not be warm.

But maybe I'm over cautious.

so

the radiators weren’t turned on before you arrived
the bin was broke.
one toilet not working

is my understanding correct?

It's not only just heating, the entire disaster of events.

what had you planned to do during this January mid week school term break? Surely it didn’t stop actual plans?

Oh come on.. 😂

The radiators were off and temp at 12 on arrival. House took about 24 hours to warm up to 20.5 as fairly big house and outdoors was freezing cold

booked a week prior to arrival.

I wouldn’t go home for the sake of 16 degrees but my home thermostat is set at 17 so we’re obviously not a hot house family. The other problems sound annoying and I’d want at least a part refund.

No wonder it’s £450 a night, it probably has to be set at that price to cover the heating being on 24 hours!

Perhaps look to stay in hotels or guest houses in future. By staying in such properties you are making a contribution to housing shortages.

Hope you get some money back though, and make sure HMRC are aware that the owner rents the property out, so he or she pays all taxes due.