It’s a Squirmy Creatures and Dog’s life at Caroline Orr- Bonds New England Beach House (But Please, No Cats).
The Field Family stay at the New England Beach House.
Dot your i’s and cross your T’s before staying at one of Caroline Orr- Bonds Properties in Sussex.
On Jan 3rd 2022 our family booked a short break at The New England Beach House, Angmering on Sea, Sussex. When we arrived the housekeeping was waiting to greet us. “I’m sorry but I need to tell you that the electric gates no longer work and you have to pull them cross manually” The statement seemed to suggest the gates had been like this for some time. In any event there was no attempt to URGENTLY REPAIR them while we were there. I highlight URGENTLY REPAIR for later in the review.
My wife has a shoulder injury so opening the gates when I was not around to help was a painful experience (as they are heavy to push). Prior to booking we were not made aware of the faulty and unlockable gates. It’s relevant to us as we have an Autistic Son that could now pull the gate across and wander off on his own. The Caroline’s deem this as a minor detail and not relevant to declare prior to booking. Well they certainly did not make us aware of it.
On entering the property it was clearly evident that the house had not had a deep clean for some considerable time. Many of the surfaces felt tacking and sticky to the touch. However the kitchen was by far the worst of the rooms. Most of the pots and cooking utensils are cheap, worn out and in some cases soiled from the previous guest. The smell of stale cooking was overpowering and we had to burn scented candles the whole time to mask the smell. The kitchen in particular was in need of the deepest of cleans as all the surfaces were tacky and greasy.
It had been guests some years ago and since our last visit the furniture was still the same and now looking worn and tired. The leather sofa in the lounge is in urgent need of replacement due to the cushions being down to the springs. Again this room was in urgent need of a deep clean.
We then looked around the bedrooms and bathrooms. These (with the exception of a used Covid 19 testing kit under one of the beds) were OK. However the master bedrooms bathroom and shower smelt damp and musty.
That first evening we sat in the lounge to watch TV. After an hour or so I noticed what looked like giant lice jumping around on the floor. They were everywhere hopping about the furniture. We caught 15/20 of them and took photos along with a video. We emailed one of the delightful Caroline’s as to what we were experiencing. The following morning the housekeeper arrived and looked at the dead bugs we captured. The housekeeper’s explanation. “They are shrimps and when it’s cold they come into the house. “Your lucky, it’s much worse in the other properties we rent”. The point being we were not made aware of these bugs or shrimps invading the living room prior to renting the property. The Caroline’s must have been aware. The housekeeper was most certainly aware. As with the gate no caution was given about the bugs. In fact here is an extract of an email from No1 Caroline (Orr-Bond) as to why it was not appropriate for them to caution us of this infestation.
Caroline Orr-Bond’s words: Regarding the “shrimps” these are indeed a normal feature of beach life under certain limited climatic conditions, not only in local Sussex but worldwide – in the same way that bees or midges might be a feature of summer in the countryside, or the smell of fish by a port year-round. In all our years of operating in Angmering-on-Sea this has never been brought up as a problem or raised even so much as a comment. Clients come to the beach and all that such a location might entail including shrimps, rocks, rain, seaweed, crabs, seagulls, tides, mud and cold salty water. It is far from reasonable for us to list all possible foreseeable hazards in our Terms & Conditions.
Seriously she would expect a visitor to except this explanation. I personally don’t wish to have shrimps hopping all over me when I’m indoors in front of the fire watching a movie. All this said we still ploughed on. We should have left on the spot. However we didn’t wish to start the New Year off on the wrong foot.
The straw that broke the camels back.
To say the cloth on the pool table was heavily used would be a fair statement. However please make up your own mind from our photos. The cloth inside the pockets was coming away and as it so happens our Autistic Son found the weakness and pulled a strip off. Making the table unusable. All our fault. We thought the right thing to do was arrange for a replaceable cloth to be fitted. We contacted two local companies to quote. Both quoted £150 for Green and £180 for Blue (baize) this price also included recovering the cushions. Sadly neither of them could get to the property before Saturday. As we were leaving on the Friday. We contacted the Caroline’s and were told the housekeeper would deal with it. We spoke with the housekeeper about the damage who said it was OK as the property was not rented at the weekend and that she would arrange this MOST URGENT REPAIR. We forwarded our quotes for the sake of good order. To our horror when the deposit was returned it was less a whopping £480. We emailed our disappointment and were fed a corporate line of T&Cs and that they had the right to charge whatever they liked. We explained that the cloth was already tired and worn out with holes in and the felt was coming away from the pockets. So please in the spirit of fairness and goodwill at least give us a gesture towards the cost as it was old for new. It was a clear no and by the way no again. Even though we know the replace cloth to be £180 we were charged £480. It’s shameful and mean. You truly must deal with these two Caroline’s with great care and make sure you get what you are paying for. Nothing was offered to us in a gesture of goodwill for the bugs, gate or pool table cloth. As I read in another review posted on the 9th November 2021. Getting money back inside of refund terms is a devil’s own job with Caroline Orr-Bond. It took a year to get our money back and the Caroline’s only settled on the steps of a courtroom. It’s a shame the words of the popular song…… “Sweet Caroline good times never seemed so good” have not rung true in our dealings with Caroline Orr-Bond. This review is reposted on this site.
