“We did enjoy our holiday at the apartment.”
It was very comfortable and I think freshly decorated as it was different to the photographs. The views were amazing with some beautiful sunsets. It was really close to the train station which was only a couple of pounds return into St ives and took about 3 mins.
There were also really lovely coastal walks from the apartment. So there were a lot of positives. However we were really disappointed with a lot of aspects and felt the description of the apartment is misleading and the photographs really do need updating.
The first major thing we noticed on walking into the apartment was that the living room is a lot smaller by a good 5ft than the photographs show. This appears to be because an extra room with bunkbeds has been added. I don't know if this room is just for the owners to use but the door was open and the beds had ,what appeared to be, used bedcovers just rolled back on the ends of the beds. (Which really isn't acceptable considering the cost of the apartment).
The living room has not only shrunk but is decorated differently and has some furniture missing, probably because it no longer fits in.
The second major thing was just how close to the road the apartment is. This isnt mentioned at all and the photographs showing the view of the outside from the apartment are cleverly taken so you aren't aware there is a road there at all.
It states in the description there is a private balcony, well yes it is private in that it is for your use only but in no way do you have any privacy when you are on it.
To begin with it is overlooked by the apartment next door. But the main issue we found is because the balcony is on the ground floor, when you sit at the table, anyone coming round the corner and walking past(and a lot do walking down to the beach) they are so close you could reach out and touch them and you do feel like you are in a bit of a goldfish bowl. We imagined having breakfast on the balcony each morning but after experiencing this the first morning, we never sat out there again as we might as well have been sitting outside a cafe in St ives. Now this was just an issue for us I'm sure this wouldn't bother a lot of people but you need to be aware of it before booking so that you've got the choice. Had we been aware of this we would probably not have chosen this apartment.
Obviously the hot tub is also on the balcony so getting in and out of it you were on full view of anyone walking or driving past however once in the tub it was relatively private. And as a positive, the hot tub is checked by a very nice man 3 times a week who was really helpful. The balcony is definately not spacious as quoted in the description!
Because of the proximity to the road, lying in the bed in the master bedroom, you can see inside the cab of any vans driving past. You could also see people walking past on the opposite side of the road so you couldn't walk around the bedroom in the nuddy, of course
you could drawer the curtains but then that defeats the object of having the lovely views to look at(of the sea not of us in the nuddy).
On a positive note, although the road is so close it is not a busy road and is especially quiet at night so doesn't disturb your sleep. I don't know if it would be busier at the height of summer. We stayed in May. The trains also run past quite close but that didn't really bother us but it might some people.
The apartment appeared to be clean especially the kitchen and the bathroom. However I was quite surprised that the hand rail on the stairs leading to the bedrooms was so dirty that I had to buy some wipes and clean it. I also had to clean the bathroom door which looked grubby and had black marks on it. I wouldn't normally do this in a holiday place but felt because of the current times it should really have been cleaned as It was really noticeable. The windows in the main bedroom also had hand marks on them however I didn't clean these as I didnt want to spend my holiday doing housekeeping considering the amount of money we had paid for the apartment.
There were a couple of other niggles. Outside the apartment there were a number of paint cans just left outside the kitchen window. There is a dishwasher and tablets were provided but there was no washing up liquid or tea towels. There are only 4 cups so if you don't want to put a dishwasher on to clean a couple of cups you may want to bring some washing up liquid and a tea towel or you will have to go out and buy some like we did! There are also no oven gloves provided so you couldn't get anything out of the hot oven. We ended up having to use one of the bathroom towels
We had one day of quite heavy rain so decided to go back to the apartment to watch a film. However everything we tried to watch required a pin. We gave up on films in the end and decided to watch Agatha Raisin thinking surely that was relatively safe but even this was pin protected. We rang Sykes and spoke to a really lovely helpful lady who said she would ring someone to get the pin for us. However, she came back to us and said whoever she had spoken to wouldnt give the pin number out and we would have to wait until 9 oclock in the evening to watch anything other than children's films.!!!!!!! Even she thought it was ridiculous. Again for the amount of money we paid for this flat and the fact that sky TV and movies are mentioned in the description, this really isnt acceptable.
Finally, if two couples are sharing this apartment, whoever gets the main bedroom is definately getting the best deal with the views and balcony. The second bedroom only has a small window which looks out onto a brick wall and next door's very tiny patio area. We didn't use this room so it didn't affect us but I feel people should be aware of it before booking.
I have marked the ratings down only because of the above issues I dont really like to do this but I want other people to be aware of them so they have an informed choice and know exactly what they are booking as I feel this is an expensive apartment and had we been aware of some of the above we would not have booked it.