We booked this accommodation well in advance in May 2013 (due to the triathlon in nearby Huskisson), choosing Marazul as it sounded like it would accommodate our two families well.
Both our families have two boys, aged between 7-10 years so we had 4 adults and 4 kids in total.
We paid our deposits on time, and balances. We advised the owner we were two families staying, and she'd receive deposits and balance from two people - but she sent a short email querying the full balance (as one family paid a day before the other).. "Where is it?" We went back and confirmed again that we were paying separately, and the payment was due 21 Jan, it was 20 Jan and it was paid on time.
Positives - good location, quiet street (end of a cul-de-sac) and very close to local shops, beach etc.
As previous reviewers have pointed out, it is dated. This was not an issue for us, but we did have problems with the actual maintenance of the house.
We arrived just before 5pm Friday and found a handwritten note on the toilet in the main bathroom saying broken..don't use. The only other inside toilet was located in the ensuite of one of the bedrooms - which essentially meant 8 people using one toilet, walking through someone's bedroom!
The third shower room/toilet was downstairs, in the laundry (this was not located inside the house, so for younger children - they were not keen to use it at night!)
The other problem was the sliding doors to the upstairs main bedroom (which opened onto the lounge/kitchen area) were half missing! Not particularly private for the couple sleeping in this room!
The electrical set up was not exactly ideal with numerous extension cords and 4 plug add-on sockets used everywhere. This wasn't a problem for us, as our children are old enough to understand - but I wouldn't recommend it for families with younger children.
Re. Broken toilet, I called the owner, no reply so left a message. I also texted her. This was before Friday 5pm.
Saturday morning - still no response at all, so I called again, no reply. Left another message.
The owner called back before lunch. Explained repair to toilet would be major, didn't want to leave us without water, etc. so it wouldn't be repaired until next week!. When I advised that we had booked what we thought was 4 bed/3 bathroom house and weren't happy, she seemed surprised. I explained also that the door to the master bedroom was missing, and the toaster kept short circuiting the house. We were unhappy to be using one inside toilet for 2 families, and would she consider any compensation since we did not receive the standard of what we had booked. This was not a consideration.
I can understand for adults this isn't an issue but she didn't seem to appreciate that young children were not keen to go out to the rear deck and downstairs to a toilet at night.
When we returned later that day, the bedroom finally HAD a door, and new toaster was left for us. No toilet repair.
When we left Monday, we left a laptop charger at the house and the owner called to let us know this. I thanked her, and asked her if she'd post it to us, and she could take postage costs out of our bond.
We received the charger back on Thursday, but the bond hadn't been returned so I texted and queried it, and it went in that day - less $15 for the return of the charger. Postage was $6, so guess the packaging and her time were the other $9.
Disappointed, as we travel a lot and from other reviews, did expect better communication and facilities than provided.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
20 Mar 2014
Short sweet answer to the two main problems issued.
Everything is fixed now, everything is fine.
Electrical settings were done less than two years ago by a professional electrician and we put a new security electricity board.
=========== If you find an extension cable dangerous, then you can remove it and put it away, just common sense.
You really liked the house and the natural environment.
But you are upset!
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Thank you for mentioning, that we were very quick to replace a defect toaster and to get back the door missing that was in repair by the carpenter.
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Thank you for your story. You could be a good writer for boring readers.
Everyone can see that you are upset because you did not get any refund. You really liked the place!
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As I explained to you, you booked when there was a triathlon in Jervis Bay and you had already paid the normal price and not the price that we could have charged for those days. So, we do think that you got already a lot of discount as we could have rented for a lot more and we had till the last minute, people in despair trying to find something, anything.
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I guess you expect me to apologize that I am not able 24/7. As a matter of fact I am a person and not a robot and I have also my life.
But you did not have to wait long to reach me.
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Yes, one of our guests cracked the toilet bowl shortly before your arrival. We were booked up in these days and we were not able to act immediately. Before you we had other guests, and when I said 'sorry" to them, the answer was " never mind, there are two more toilets in the house, it did not bother us".
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Not many houses have 3 toilets as we have, as a matter of fact, most of the houses have one toilet.
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That your kids were afraid to go downstairs at night, I do understand. You could have solved the problem, leaving your kids sleeping in the house and you could have used their bedroom.
It is a question of common sense.
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There are many things that one can arrange with good willing.
But I guess it is easy to extend the hand an ask for a refund and complain, complain, complain.
And you said to me, you were not the kind of person that likes to complain, but there you go, you do not even know yourself.
***
To make this long story short:
A holiday house has a high wear and tear. We do not like when things get broken and we do what we can to replace them immediately.
Sometimes it is not possible.
This is life, some thing cannot be done yesterday. I apologize that you were not able to use this one toilet, but you had other two to use and 3 complete bathrooms and an outdoor shower.
You know, sometimes it is good when some things go wrong, then we learn about ourselves and how to keep everything in proportion.
Alex
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC