Comedowntothewoods

GossipMongoose · May 17, 2022

Lilyofthevalley80 said:
I can't belive that you would seriously think that a large number of people outwith the school holidays would want to go on holiday there at that price?! I mean surely some analysis of the followers and actually trying to work out conversion of likes and engagement to actually purchasing the products advertised would have shown this and this is a much larger outlay? One thing I would say is that I get no feel whatsoever for the area from the Instagram page. I don't want to see people stroking light switches. What are the restaurants and pubs like? The walk to the beach? Can we see what supermarkets are there? What is the beach like? What facilities are near by? Let's see the parking in situ? Why is there nothing practical?

Why - if you lived in Leeds -would you want to drive 5.5 hours to a holiday home?! You can't got for the weekend. We did a huge renovation similar to their new house. It took 18 months to do the whole thing and we had to be there constantly to supervise builders who were working 6 or 7 days a week. When we went away for holidays we went abroad to escape and our parents had to come to supervise. There is no freaking way I would have wanted to do a 11 hour round trip to another house that woukd have issues to sort out. It's madness. An albatross to worry about whilst doing another renovation. So whilst they are managing all of that, they have to try and deal with constant complaints and queries about mugs and curfew in the garden and the cleaning not being QUITE perfect for the £6k a week guests?! Why would your you think that was a sensible thing to do - particularly at a time when the economy is not exactly stable.

She should be showing more about the surrounding area but I think the problem is, as pp who know the area well have said, it’s not that well located (for the price she’s asking). So she’s just trading on the expensive renovation interiors and hoping it’ll do the job and people will ignore the other important stuff.
I agree re holiday home and distance from your own home in terms of travel time and usage. Though they don’t work a 9-5, she doesn’t anyway, so in theory could go down for all of the school holidays if they wanted. They aren’t limited to weekends or whatever A/L their manager is prepared to allow them.

I do think she’s going to need to rethink those prices though. They are crackers for the position and conditions imposed on guests

Libertine · May 17, 2022

Lilyofthevalley80 said:
I can't belive that you would seriously think that a large number of people outwith the school holidays would want to go on holiday there at that price?! I mean surely some analysis of the followers and actually trying to work out conversion of likes and engagement to actually purchasing the products advertised would have shown this and this is a much larger outlay? One thing I would say is that I get no feel whatsoever for the area from the Instagram page. I don't want to see people stroking light switches. What are the restaurants and pubs like? The walk to the beach? Can we see what supermarkets are there? What is the beach like? What facilities are near by? Let's see the parking in situ? Why is there nothing practical?

Why - if you lived in Leeds -would you want to drive 5.5 hours to a holiday home?! You can't got for the weekend. We did a huge renovation similar to their new house. It took 18 months to do the whole thing and we had to be there constantly to supervise builders who were working 6 or 7 days a week. When we went away for holidays we went abroad to escape and our parents had to come to supervise. There is no freaking way I would have wanted to do a 11 hour round trip to another house that woukd have issues to sort out. It's madness. An albatross to worry about whilst doing another renovation. So whilst they are managing all of that, they have to try and deal with constant complaints and queries about mugs and curfew in the garden and the cleaning not being QUITE perfect for the £6k a week guests?! Why would your you think that was a sensible thing to do - particularly at a time when the economy is not exactly stable.

I completely agree with everything you’ve written. Though to be fair, they decided to purchase it in January 2020 and the economy did seem more or less okay then, pre-Covid.

I can’t be bothered finding where she said they wrote a business plan, but she was clear when they purchased it that it was a business.

Exhaustednurse · May 17, 2022

That’s the problem. She’s mixed up business with personal dreams. She maybe in love with brass fittings (especially the ones that are gifted!) but owning a holiday let has make money as a priority.

Lilyofthevalley80 · May 17, 2022

GossipMongoose said:
She should be showing more about the surrounding area but I think the problem is, as pp who know the area well have said, it’s not that well located (for the price she’s asking). So she’s just trading on the expensive renovation interiors and hoping it’ll do the job and people will ignore the other important stuff.
I agree re holiday home and distance from your own home in terms of travel time and usage. Though they don’t work a 9-5, she doesn’t anyway, so in theory could go down for all of the school holidays if they wanted. They aren’t limited to weekends or whatever A/L their manager is prepared to allow them.

I do think she’s going to need to rethink those prices though. They are crackers for the position and conditions imposed on guests

Lilyofthevalley80 said:
I can't belive that you would seriously think that a large number of people outwith the school holidays would want to go on holiday there at that price?! I mean surely some analysis of the followers and actually trying to work out conversion of likes and engagement to actually purchasing the products advertised would have shown this and this is a much larger outlay? One thing I would say is that I get no feel whatsoever for the area from the Instagram page. I don't want to see people stroking light switches. What are the restaurants and pubs like? The walk to the beach? Can we see what supermarkets are there? What is the beach like? What facilities are near by? Let's see the parking in situ? Why is there nothing practical?

Agreed but the husband needs to keep working and the children are in school. So if they take up all the a school holiday time, they they are using up all the prime rental time. Plus presumably the children have parties/sports/school so can't just take them out of school to go whenever and an 11 hour trip for a weekend - once you've actually found a weekend that your kids don't have social stuff? Um. No thanks. .

All the posts so far have been: "oh I'm so amazed
that you would want cutlery in the kitchen and a bottle opener. WE ALWAYS GO OUT TO EAT". Um....surely you research your target market and find out what their priorities are BEFORE you putchase and start renovating a holiday home to your exact specifications and charge them 6k a week to use the garden before 10pm?! This all looked to me like - oh it would be nice if a few people wanted to rent it but we don't really care because we've taken all the prime slots and decorated it to our own very "unique" tastes and can easily afford it all. Instead there was apparently a business plan and we are subjected to fairly desperate shilling on insta? It doesn't really make sense

GossipMongoose · May 17, 2022

Lilyofthevalley80 said:
Agreed but the husband needs to keep working and the children are in school. So if they take up all the a school holiday time, they they are using up all the prime rental time. Plus presumably the children have parties/sports/school so can't just take them out of school to go whenever and an 11 hour trip for a weekend - once you've actually found a weekend that your kids don't have social stuff? Um. No thanks. .

All the posts so far have been: "oh I'm so amazed
that you would want cutlery in the kitchen and a bottle opener. WE ALWAYS GO OUT TO EAT". Um....surely you research your target market and find out what their priorities are BEFORE you putchase and start renovating a holiday home to your exact specifications and charge them 6k a week to use the garden before 10pm?! This all looked to me like - oh it would be nice if a few people wanted to rent it but we don't really care because we've taken all the prime slots and decorated it to our own very "unique" tastes and can easily afford it all. Instead there was apparently a business plan and we are subjected to fairly desperate shilling on insta? It doesn't really make sense

Oh, I agree with you. She’s gormless.

stormsilver · May 18, 2022

Late to the party but thought I’d have a little look at home much it is to stay there to be nosey…over £1000 for TWO NIGHTS for 4 of us?! I could literally go abroad for a week, is she okay?!

Lilyofthevalley80 · May 18, 2022

I think to get tax relief on letting our a holiday home (which presumably they are very keen for as can get relief on capital expenditure), it has to be rented out to third parties for about a third of the year so may have to reduce prices if there isn't a bit of an uptixk in bookings

Hereforthehonesty · May 18, 2022

I am so pleased this property is accessible for disabled guests….Now if someone would just let Katie woods in on how much people with disabilities receive per week/month which is easily “accessible” to find on gov website she would know that this does not at all support a holiday or even a short stay at the smurf house!! It’s actually so insulting to people- completely not aligned with PIP/disability living allowances, Very shoddy business plan.

As a working class parent shall I use my yearly holiday budget to pay for my family of 4 to go toThe Caribbean for 2 weeks, alongside a centre parcs weekend and a trip to Disneyland Paris for the weekend or
shall I book a week in the Smurf house for one week and hope and pray to god the weather is good ?

lol

GossipMongoose · May 18, 2022

Hereforthehonesty said:
I am so pleased this property is accessible for disabled guests….Now if someone would just let Katie woods in on how much people with disabilities receive per week/month which is easily “accessible” to find on gov website she would know that this does not at all support a holiday or even a short stay at the smurf house!! It’s actually so insulting to people- completely not aligned with PIP/disability living allowances, Very shoddy business plan.

As a working class parent shall I use my yearly holiday budget to pay for my family of 4 to go toThe Caribbean for 2 weeks, alongside a centre parcs weekend and a trip to Disneyland Paris for the weekend or
shall I book a week in the Smurf house for one week and hope and pray to god the weather is good ?

lol

You’re absolutely right re PIP and benefits, though not all disabled people are reliant on them or on low incomes. Admittedly that’s a pretty dinky demographic, especially when you add all the other criteria and restrictions attached to choosing SmugHouse as a holiday destination.

GingerWhinger · May 19, 2022

She’s offering a 25%discount on the smug house for June & July……….
Tell me your struggling for bookings without telling me your struggling for bookings. Fair enough they’ve marketed it too late for this year, but it’s still an eye watering price for a migraine inducing holiday let with a curfew & it’s got zero views or nearby beach.

Exhaustednurse · May 19, 2022

It’s still £4.5k for a week away in June with that discount.
It’s still not good value for money.

it’s not too late for this years bookings. South Hams is so popular, lots of people are always looking for a place to stay, and most places get booked out immediately. But brass light switches and a pink concrete bench are not the must haves for a holiday let. Location, space and value for money are.

It’s rather conceited to think that people are willing to spend thousands of pounds to stay in a place where you’ve had so many items gifted for free

Lilyofthevalley80 · May 19, 2022

Exhaustednurse said:
It’s still £4.5k for a week away in June with that discount.
It’s still not good value for money.

it’s not too late for this years bookings. South Hams is so popular, lots of people are always looking for a place to stay, and most places get booked out immediately. But brass light switches and a pink concrete bench are not the must haves for a holiday let. Location, space and value for money are.

It’s rather conceited to think that people are willing to spend thousands of pounds to stay in a place where you’ve had so many items gifted for free

To be honest - I don’t think it’s actually somewhere that most families would want to stay for practicality reasons. A yellow velour sofa that presumably will stain? How well would the cork floor tiles clean? Presumably not very well? A slide that you have to watch little ones on constantly. Gold leaf on a main thorough fair staircase. I showed it to some friends with little ones and we all had visions of a husband biffing the gold leaf bringing suitcase up the stairs or a toddler spilling a drink on the cork floor or a child dropping something on the yellow velour sofa - so no return of security deposit. That is not a relaxing for a family holiday at all. The location isn’t right for families. I suppose there maybe big groups without children but the garden curfew is still an issue. I will be interested to see how much it is rented out. We will never know but it would also be interesting to know how many weeks of the rental are actually fee paying guests rather then friends and family

Libertine · May 19, 2022

Lilyofthevalley80 said:
Gold leaf on a main thorough fair staircase. I showed it to some friends with little ones and we all had visions of a husband biffing the gold leaf bringing suitcase up the stairs

OMG.

It’s gold leaf.

Each time Katie shows the staircase I’ve thought ‘it’s a strange design choice to keep bits of the mouldy old original wall - there must be something significant about it.’

It’s bloody gold leaf, not mould.

unidentified · May 19, 2022

Libertine said:
OMG.

It’s gold leaf.

Each time Katie shows the staircase I’ve thought ‘it’s a strange design choice to keep bits of the mouldy old original wall - there must be something significant about it.’

It’s bloody gold leaf, not mould.

Hahaha this made me laugh. It took me ages to work it out too but I thought how stupid. Kids will 100% pick at that. Kids are pickers. Either that or wipe bogies on

Lilyofthevalley80 · May 20, 2022

Libertine said:
OMG.

It’s gold leaf.

Each time Katie shows the staircase I’ve thought ‘it’s a strange design choice to keep bits of the mouldy old original wall - there must be something significant about it.’

It’s bloody gold leaf, not mould.

Well I’m assuming it’s gold leaf

GossipMongoose · May 20, 2022

Somewhat misleading caption re the giveaway , “worth up to 6k”. Isn’t that 6k price, peak summer holiday pricing and didn’t an eagle-eyed Tattler spot that school holidays were a no-no on the comp T&C’s?

haaha · May 20, 2022

"Dogs are permitted to stay. Please enquire with Unique Holiday Stays before booking. Any permission to allow dogs to stay will be explicity and only provided by the owner. Additional supplement payable."

Hmm now on the website.

GossipMongoose · May 20, 2022

haaha said:
"Dogs are permitted to stay. Please enquire with Unique Holiday Stays before booking. Any permission to allow dogs to stay will be explicity and only provided by the owner. Additional supplement payable."

Hmm now on the website.

Back pedalling like a bastard

Lilyofthevalley80 · May 20, 2022

6k supplement for the dog

Exhaustednurse · May 20, 2022

WTF is a dog supplement

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