Just back from 3 day’s at Beach Rd. I went down to hand deliver the keys for the linen press to the agents. After two sets going missing and two sets allegedly failing to arrive by post the only solution was to deliver them myself and check the condition of the property at the same time.
Things at Casey’s Beach Retreat weren’t bad but they weren’t good. To cut a long story short it took me the best part of three days to get the place into shape and by that I mean spotless on the inside and tidied up on the outside. Whoever arrives there next should find the place in immaculate condition barring any permanent damage from previous guests.
Checking out the property was prompted by this not so good review on Stayz.
In the above instance ‘very dirty’ was clearly an exaggeration and the stain on the Doona cover was non-descript and about 1-2mm in size, (an unbelievably tiny spot which took me ages to find) regardless; the covers should have been changed; this is what the contents of the linen press are for, and this was compounded by the cleaners (employed by the agents) not having the linen press keys and still getting their heads around what their ‘responsibilities’ are.
All that aside and by comparison the child of this guest left us this substantial handiwork which covers about a quarter of the surface area of what is a very large table. There wasn’t the time to deal with it on this trip but it will certainly require cutting back with a sander and re-surfacing on my next visit as some of the gouge marks are quite deep.
A substantial part of my time there was taken up removing scuff marks and greasy or otherwise hand-prints from most of the walls in the house. All up this was nearly a days work in itself. Despite cleaning up quite well its apparent that some of the walls in the upper and lower hallways will require a repaint soon. Not so good considering that a year ago they were in pristine condition.
Most of the surfaces in the kitchen and bathrooms had product residue on them. Obviously the cleaners are just wiping down and not drying off and in many instances not even doing a particularly good job of this. I have a long list of issues for them; a lot of which is just attention to detail but hopefully things will improve from here on in.
The BBQ
Simply disappointing.
The cover was off and on the ground and had clearly been there for a long time. It took over an hour to bring the surfaces back to something resembling a decent condition. Guests who use it are not cleaning it down on the outside and the added exposure to salt and moisture had it looking like some post grunge artwork. Remember that how you leave it is how someone else will find it.
The original cover (now replaced) was badly torn in places, just make sure the velcro tabs that secure the cover are undone before taking it off and please put it back on and secure the tabs when you’re done.
There have been issues in the past with people arriving and finding the gas cylinder empty. It’s the users responsibility to top up or refill the gas before leaving, which you can do at the Caltex Service station in Batehaven. Essentially you are using what someone else has paid for; so please repay in kind.
Casey's Beach Retreat 