Westwood

We spent a week here as two families, nine people in all, and there was still room for more. It’s a huge house with lots of parking, right on the coast. The photos we took were just a five-minute walk away, and the house and decor match the pictures on the other websites. The host was nice and checked in during our stay. Dogs are allowed. The garden at the back is nice, with steps down the steep hill and a gate straight onto the coastal path. The living room is spacious, but a couple of old sofas gave us bad backs and should be replaced. There were several details that kept this from feeling like the five-star property shown in the listing. Google Maps had the location wrong, so after reaching the street we drove up and down a few times and asked people before finding it. There is a sign, but a van blocked it when we arrived. The house shares its drive with a neighbour, and although the name is engraved on pillars, it’s hard to spot. We corrected the map location, so it should be easier for the next guests. The drive has space for three cars, but it’s steep and the entrance is very narrow. One of our cars couldn’t make it up, so we left it on the road. You need good clutch control. The WiFi was reliable and fast. The rooms shown in the photos had fresh carpet and plush decor, just as pictured. There are also extra rooms that weren’t shown, such as the utility rooms and entrance cloakrooms, and those are old and dated, though they aren’t important rooms. It’s clearly an old property that has had renovations over time, including bathrooms added to make many bedrooms en-suite. But the plumbing couldn’t cope. For the whole week, none of us could get a proper shower. The bathrooms supplied by the water tank only gave cool water, regardless of when we tried. The electric-heater showers swung between scalding hot and freezing cold, and we couldn’t keep them at a steady temperature despite following the instructions. The tank itself was piping hot, but the water seemed to have trouble reaching the bathrooms. With the rainy, cold coastal weather, a hot shower after a day out mattered to us, especially for a property advertised as five star. The electrics also seem to have been adapted over time. In one of the newer bathrooms, the spotlights started strobing after a couple of minutes, intensely enough to drive you nuts. There’s no natural light in there, so I used the toilet and brushed my teeth with light coming in from the bedroom. When showering, I switched the light on but kept my eyes closed as long as I could. The new en-suite bathrooms have made the bedrooms a bit smaller, but the bathrooms themselves are tiny. There was space to make them bigger, yet the sink is positioned so you can’t sit on the toilet without hitting it. The shower cubicle is so cramped I kept banging my arms against the walls and door. You can stand upright, but there’s barely room to move your arms.