Cape Bridgewater Accommodation

Mar 14th, 2022

We stayed at this house for 3 nights and it was a comfortable stay. The house is nice and fairly clean. The views are spectacular, the location is great and there are plenty of things to do and see in the area. The owner of the property has left lists of places to visit, which is great if you are not familiar with the area. We did many of them and enjoyed all. The deck and the view are probably the two most important aspects of this place. Cape Bridgewater is tiny - no shops (so prepare to bring your own supplies or drive to Portland in about 20 minutes), but there is a fantastic little cafe - right on the beach, which serves really nice food. This is just a few minutes walk down the road. We found chocolates in the fridge on our arrival, which was a nice touch. The house is spacous and well stocked with everything you could possibly need. This is unfortunately where the positives end! Our holiday started with an email from the owner Helen Oakley, the day before. This included the pin number for the key safe, and an extensive PDF with instructions. There were so many do's and don'ts that we did not particularly feel welcome. Once we got to the deck and looked at the view, we noticed right away that 2 houses were being built (see photos). These certainly impact the view somewhat and I hope the owner will adjust the photos she uses to advertise the place once the houses are finished. A third one is being built next door. Each morning at 7.30 the building sounds started, so if you are hoping for a sleep in, you may not get one. Fortunately this is only temporary and of course totally out of Helen's control. Another source of noise came from the caravan park close by, They had a school bus full of kids staying, with associated screaming and laughter. Again, out of Helen's control, but nonetheless there! Once we unpacked, we sat down to read through the folder with the many, many instructions!. We will let you read them for yourselves - see photos. We travel extensively and have stayed at many self contained houses, flats as well as motel rooms, and have never, ever been asked to strip the beds or vacuum before leaving a property; mostly it is 'leave it as you found it'. We have always found ALL beds made in a property with more than 1 bedroom - not here. Next we read through the suggestions of things to do... great - and we did many of them. We finally read through the 'guest book', with introduction from Helen - see photo. Personally, we found a lot of low cost items could have been replaced - scratched placemats, chipped crockery etc. There is no wifi, which was perfectly fine with us. The tv reception was mostly fine, however kept dropping in and out all night (1 night), which was quite annoying. There is only a wood heater, no other type of heating or air conditioning, nor a fan. This might be a problem on the very cold or hot days. When going to bed, I noticed the doona cover in the master bedroom was very pilled, which was not inviting. On waking up the next morning, your eyes are immediately drawn to the view - however, with the sun now on the windows, we could see how incredibly streaked they were. If your #1 selling point is the view, would you not make sure the windows on that side were at least spotless? All glass and mirror surfaces in the house were streaked. In spite of the negatives just listed, we had a really nice stay. Just a final warning: the owner does not appreciate private feedback and her replies to some of the above remarks were not something you would expect from someone in the service industry where 'the customer is always right'! Once again, it was not so much 'what she said, but how she said it'! If you would like to hear the finer details of this correspondence, please feel free to contact me!
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