I never write reviews, but for the not insignificant money we paid I felt we didn't get value. We had to contact the property manager several times to sort issues out, which we shouldn't have needed to do.
Some key points (and there were many more):
- The kitchen was woefully under-equipped eg no baking tray, baking dishes, casserole dishes except for a tiny one, no medium or large saucepans, whisk or garlic crusher and the frypans were greasy and old (toxic non stick)
- The place wasn't clean eg my feet were filthy after walking on the floor, you wouldn't want to sit on the outside couches that were dirty, the back outdoor area hadn't been swept, the outdoor table was stained (I had to clean it myself)
- There was neglect eg 4 drawers in various rooms wouldn't close and were annoying and unsafe, the outside furniture was coming undone, the main bedroom door wouldn't stay closed
- Some furniture was grotty and past its use-by date eg the lounge was stained and disgusting looking, and the two lounge chairs that had covers on them had collapsed middles
- The beds were hard and the mattresses felt old and worn
- There was no coffee machine or coffee for the 2-cup plunger. Also, there wasn't enough toilet paper, and no hand wash or tissues
- For 2 days we had workmen building a gate which was noisy and intrusive (on another occasion they were near our bedroom window talking electrics without knocking on our door)
- The house is now on a major Bypass and almost opposite a new bus station, which will further up the noise. It will be much noisier
- There was no BBQ cleaning tool or gas yet there were many rules about having to clean it and there was supposed to be a spare bottle (the one bottle was near empty)
- The owners live at the back and one day I was sitting outside when one of them walked in through the back gate to put some rubbish in one of our bins and put them out. She didn't ask permission (legally we were renting the property). From then on we felt uncomfortable sitting outside and sunbaking
- The property manager spammed my phone with texts about competitions when I was trying to escape social media! I asked them stop but it continued.
All in all, it was hard work when it shouldn't have been and detracted from our holiday. We love Byron Bay and enjoyed our time regardless, but our experience with the house was frustrating despite the high rent.