Dear Malcolm
Thank you for your review of your stay at our Cabin on the water's edge. We are glad to hear that you enjoyed your stay here on our farm. We have put out some extra gravel recently around the Cabin parking area to help vehicles exiting during the rainy season. As this is a farm out in the countryside, a little bit of mud is to be expected.
We are sorry to hear that you do not want to pay for pets. We have made it quite clear in our description that there is a pet levy per pet per night (which is quite common in the hospitality industry). Pets, especially dogs do make more mess generally speaking, and we have to put in extra cleaning and disinfecting after guests leave which costs us more as well. You were also notified before you accepted the booking that there is a pet fee, by accepting the quote you therefore agreed to pay for the pet levy on arrival. It is also mentioned in the FAQ form which we send to all guests before check in day which has the price, so in all 3 instances we have made that quite clear. We do allow small dogs ie Yorkshire terriers and you asked if you could bring a little dog with...you then brought a medium to large-sized dog with you. In future, we would suggest asking a friend or family member to look after your pet should you not wish to pay for him.
I would like to also point out that our log Cabin is clearly advertised as a 2 sleeper unit and we charge as such. You asked us if your family members could come and visit during the day to enjoy a braai with you and we allowed that at no extra charge. You then failed to inform us of the fact that you were planning to have your family stay over in the Cabin for the night, so that was an extra 4 people making use of our facilities without paying which by all rights we should charge for, you only let us know of that fact when you were all driving out of the farm gate. This was extremely unethical as a guest to do and it was quite upsetting to us and I had discussed that with you in a private message after you left.
As you have now chosen to make a baseless complaint publicly, and I see you have marked all of our scores down to a 4 which is quite unfair to us considering how well we treated you and for all the extra services you enjoyed in an extremely clean unit. I would love to know how we can improve our security (we have a secure boundary fence, locks on access gates and an electric gate with remote control to allow easy access), you don't feel our 4-star rated unit is quite valuable for money, and you are not completely satisfied with the customer service (even though I personally responded to you every time you had a request ie bringing extra firewood or needed replacement dishes when you accidentally broke one) - perhaps you would like to review all the scores you have given us, with all of those points in mind. You also mentioned the fantastic view in your review, yet gave a 4/5 for location...so I am a bit confused by your ratings. Should you wish to improve your scores/change your review I will happily request that the booking platform then change or remove ours.
We do appreciate your comments and will seriously look at how we can continue to improve things for both guests and protect ourselves as hosts to avoid these issues in the future.
Kind Regards
Ashley Crookes
Managing Partner