I arrived at 1 Richardson Court, Whitehall Landing Whitby on 11 July 25 at 4.30pm. By the door were a number of key safes but none for Flat 1. I had noted the passwords but I had not printed off the instructions (I don't have a printer) and had not brought my computer with me. I tried to find a phone number on Holiday Cottages' website but to no avail. I needed to know where the key safe was and suspected some sort of scam. I found a 'chat' facility and sent a message. It was now about 5.20 pm. I waited and at about 5.45 got a message saying that my chat had been ended because I was 'unresponsive'. The operator had left the office. The 'unresponsiveness' was probably because I was in the deep valley of the River Esk and surrounded by high buildings, thus poor signal strength.
I admit that I should have read the instructions more carefully, and noted that the key safe was 'in the bin store' but I didn't. In short, when I really needed help, absolutely no help was available and I felt treated with disdain. The result was that I, in my seventy eighth year and disabled, had no option but to drive back to my home in Cottingham, a round trip of about 140 miles to read the instructions and note the words "in bin store".
My suggestion is that you start the instructions with the words "the pass code for the bin store is 'abc123' and you will need this to access the key safe" I returned to Whitby the next morning but needed the day to recover. The remainder of the holiday went well.

Just back from our break at Priesthaughburn. I've never been so disappointed in such a lovely looking cottage. I certainly didn't expect to have to hoover the whole ground floor to clean up previous occupants dirt half an hour after arrival. The cottage could have been cleaner. It needs a full deep clean. There was a large collection of dead flies up above a window in the conservatory. I understand it's in the middle of the countryside and you're going to get flies but that had been there for weeks. The bathrooms upstairs had them on the floors too and hadn't been swept up. I was struck that none of the bedding had been ironed and was very crinkled and the zip on the duvet cover in the master bedroom was broken so the quilt kept coming out the bottom. The fan in that bedroom was broken. There were dirty handprints on the windows of the downstairs bedroom and the soap dish and shower head the downstairs toilet fell off the wall. The Aga in the kitchen was visibly dirty on top and the surrounding tiles hadn't been cleaned in a while. The top oven also belched out thick smoke and we had to have all the windows open as we were trying to cook pizzas for 7 adults it was very difficult with only one small oven available. The other part of the Aga was out of service as was the wine cooler and fire. There were also dirty oven gloves in one of the drawers. The bbq was dirty from previous use which we had to clean. One of the legs on the couch in the living room was broken and was held up with a brick. The high chair was filthy inside and out and I had to scrub it hard with bleach and the mattress on the travel cot has mould on the side of it. I contacted Mandy who offered to come and replace the duvet on the Sunday but I told her not to bother as we'd be away on the Monday and I wasn't prepared to wrestle with a king size duvet after all the cleaning. I contacted her on Saturday night to explain about the problems with the Aga but all she could do was apologise and say she'd contact the owner. She never got back to me. I don't expect this kind of service or to have to clean someone else's house when I'm paying a fortune for 3 nights to stay in it. As I said it needs a full deep clean. I think they need to find new cleaners as it looks like whoever cleans it is just glossing over it. I even had to empty other people's filth out the hoover before I could use it. Also some of the cushions in the living room need replaced as they're are lots of catches and loose threads. I'm sorry for the large email but I'm just not used to this as in the many holiday cottages I've stayed in over the years I've never experienced anything like it!

We left Rascarrel Bay lodges in the 4th of July and now 18 days later I am still waiting for my £150 refund, I have sent numerous emails and had very little response from you. We have been coming to Rascarrel Bay for 8 years but I don't think we will be returning after this has left a bad taste