The Swanage Rail Lookout

Hi Paula, thanks for taking the time to provide this feedback. Great to hear these positive comments, especially regarding the brand new living space and balcony areas. We hope that you will stay at The Swanage Rail Lookout again in the future.

Hi Pauline, thanks for taking the time to provide this feedback. Great to hear these positive comments in terms of the location of the property and the property itself. We are glad that you enjoyed the steam trains as we, our young kids and our dog also do! We hope that you will stay at The Swanage Rail Lookout again in the future.

Hi Rupert, thanks for taking the time to provide this feedback and for your recommendation! Great to hear these positive comments in terms of the location of the property and the property itself. We did see that you have booked again for next year and look forward to you coming back to stay then.

Hi Kate, thanks for taking the time to provide this feedback. Great to hear that you had a nice time and that the house had everything that you needed. We hope that you will stay at The Swanage Rail Lookout again in the future.

Hi Steve, thanks for taking the time to provide this feedback. Great to hear that you had a good time and that the property suited. We hope that you will stay at The Swanage Rail Lookout again in the future.

Hi Jane, thanks for taking the time to provide this feedback. Lovely to hear that you had a great stay, reflected by your positive comments, and that you enjoyed seeing the stream train go past! We have to admit that we are disappointed with the scoring breakdown that you have provided given the purely positive comments seen. Please do let us know if you therefore have any suggestions for improvements etc that were the reason for the scores provided?

Hi Catherine, thanks for taking the time to provide all of this feedback and it's lovely to hear all of these positive comments and that you and the family had a great time. Thank you also for the suggestions for improvement made. We will add a potato masher to the property by the end of next week and, regarding the bedroom windows and reiterating what we replied in a previous review, please refer to the property advert where it states "Please note that the lower windows to the twin and bunkbed rooms have been sealed and although the handles remain, even when unlocked they cannot be opened for safety reasons." To confirm, the upper windows in both of those rooms (and both the upper and lower windows in the king room) can still be opened to let air in, as we're sure you would have done, and, again referring back to a previous review, by the end of next week fans will be put in both the twin and bunkbed rooms for use if they are felt to be required. Our apologies for these not being available during your stay.

Hi Pauline, thanks for taking the time to provide all of this feedback and it's great to hear that you think we have a very nice property in terms of quality and location. We have to admit that we are disappointed with the scoring breakdown that you have provided, given the nature of the points raised and would like to explain why by addressing the suggested adjustments mentioned for yours/others reference. Firstly, bedroom windows, as stated in the property advert "Please note that the lower windows to the twin and bunkbed rooms have been sealed and although the handles remain, even when unlocked they cannot be opened for safety reasons." To confirm, the upper windows in both of those rooms (and both the upper and lower windows in the king room) can still be opened to let air in etc and no keys are needed as those that can be opened are not locked. However, we take your point on board in terms of the temperature that you felt upstairs and, over the next few weeks, we will be providing fans in each of those two bedrooms, for use if they are felt to be required. Similarly, in terms of the lack of clock, we will be putting a couple in the property shortly. Thanks for this feedback as this is not something that we thought of when furnishing the property. Regarding cupboard space, yes we have needed to lock off some of the cupboards in order for us to leave clean bedding/towels etc and stock for the cleaners to use as part of changeovers, however we believe that we have left ample cupboard space for holiday makers, certainly more than we have been provided with when we have stayed elsewhere. However, please do note that as a result of upcoming works to the property later this year, being knocking down the sun room and rebuilding to be the property's living room, the existing living room will be a spare room that can be used for storage, freeing up some of the currently locked cupboards. Regarding hanging of clothes, thanks for that feedback and, although we feel what is currently in place is enough to service the property, in order to ensure this when it comes to our longer bookings, we have decided to, over the next few weeks, buy an additional clothes rail. The two large cupboards you refer to as being out of bounds are used as storage for the cleaners as mentioned above, a necessity of course, albeit we still maintain that we believe storage space provided is suitable as it is, albeit will increase as also mentioned above, again reiterating the upcoming changes to the property's layout and increased storage space available to holiday makers as a result. Thanks for the feedback on the lack of egg cups and apologies for those not being available during your stay, however as we mentioned on a previous review that also kindly mentioned this, we were soon to provide some at the property and now have done so. Sorry we are confused by what you mean by egg spoons, we thought teaspoons, of which there are many at the property, would suffice in this regard however please do advise if we are misunderstanding and we will action further. Regarding insufficient washing up liquid, we have double checked what is provided as part of each booking and that is a 50ml bottle, suitable for at least 3-4 instances of washing up and, given the availability of the dishwasher (with 2 x dishwasher tablets provided by us) also, feel this is ample for a self catering holiday let. Finally, salt and pepper, thanks very much for this feedback as we didn't think of including these when furnishing the property, however we have now actioned. Apologies for these not being available during your stay.

Hi Ian, thanks for taking the time to provide this feedback and great to hear that you really enjoyed your stay and would recommend our property. Regarding the cushion storage bins, our apologies for that inconvenience, they should be fully waterproof! We will arrange for them to now be put in the garden shed as this should ensure they stay dry in the future. Good point RE pegs for the washing line and the cleaners will be putting some pegs at the property as part of the next changeover next week, apologies for those not being available during your stay. We will be bringing some egg cups with us as part of our next stay at the property in a few weeks, thanks for commenting on this as again something we didn't think of when furnishing it! Finally, RE cleaning materials and further to the email correspondence that you kindly had with the management company as requested by ourselves, the items mentioned to be missing were shower cleaner (not advised to be left by the management company), bleach (or similar) for the toilets (again not advised to be left by the management company) and finally, kitchen cleaner, of which there should be a bottle of anti-bacterial spray kitchen cleaner located in the cupboard under the sink. Hopefully summarising this will help yourselves/future guests in terms of what is/isn't provided as part of the property cleaning wise.

Hi Robert, thanks for taking the time to provide this feedback, lovely to hear your positive comments and that you would stay at the property again albeit it is a shame to hear about the weather during your stay. Glad to hear that you enjoyed the around half a mile stroll to the station also.

Hi Gerard, thanks for taking the time to provide all of this feedback and it's great to hear that you would recommend our property to family and friends. We have to admit that we are disappointed with the scoring breakdown that you have provided, given the nature of the points raised and would like to explain why by addressing the gripes mentioned for yours/others reference. Firstly, garden furniture. I can only apologise for there being cobwebs , this is surprising given the use of the furniture across previous bookings, however I have fed this back to the cleaners who will ensure that they take a look for this as part of changeovers. Also, apologies for the bird droppings, however this is difficult to address as there is always some time between cleaners attending the property and the next guests arriving, during which birds may well do their business unfortunately! Secondly, again we we can only apologise for the couple of kitchen chairs that you needed to clean. We checked with the cleaners and they are very surprised by this finding and will ensure that this is not required again in the future. Regarding kitchen roll, in line with advice from our management company, it is unusual for these to be provided and instead would be guests responsibility to provide their own. Finally, regarding parking, our management company will now include some advice around reversing into the drive rather than driving in front ways, as part of the travel directions section when booking, as we appreciate that, when the road is busy, reversing out of the drive could be more challenging. Please note that we would still advise guests to utilise the off-road parking, as we ourselves do when staying at the property, albeit there is of course the option to park on the road, for free, if preferred/more convenient.

Hi Christopher, thank you for taking the time to provide this feedback and great to hear that the property provided everything you required. Regarding parking, appreciate your comments, however we have a large SUV sized car and a van and we are able to park them directly behind each other down the drive, albeit we do note that those sitting in the passenger side of the vehicles are needing to get in/out at the top of the drive as the width does not allow both doors to open when parked at the bottom of the drive, only the drivers side. I can only apologise for neighbours and their visitors parking across the frontage and drive, this shouldn't happen as everyone is aware to not block the drive (we will put a sign up to reiterate this) and they also usually leave us a space directly outside the house on the road, albeit as these are public spaces this cannot be guaranteed. As a result of these being public spaces, in the instance of no parking space available directly outside the property then there should be ample other spaces along the road to utilise. Just to clarify for yours/others future reference, from November this year we will be creating a further off-road parking space directly in front of the house, thereby allowing for 3 vehicles being parked off-road as well as , if preferred, utilising the on-road spaces available, of which there are usually many in a very close proximity to the property.

Hi Stephen, Thank you very much for your positive comments and we hope that you enjoyed your stay. Regarding the missing items, we have two chopping boards at the property, appearing to have been left in the bottom drawer underneath the oven during your stay. Regardless, we will move them to be in the bottom drawer underneath the hob(s) as makes sense for them to be in with the weighing scales etc. We have today bought an iron and ironing board for the property, thank you for feeding that back and apologies for these not being available during your stay. Finally, we can only apologise for the couple of unwashed plates that you found. We checked with the cleaners and they are very surprised by this finding and will ensure that this does not happen again in the future.