The house is nice, garden peaceful and well tended, and the views were beautiful, however there was an initial hiccup, and some things that could be improved.
Initial Hiccup: My partner and I chose this house to take my 99-year-old grandmother on holiday for her birthday as it had few steps, a good kitchen, and nice views. Unfortunately, the alarm hadn't been disarmed before we arrived so we set it off. I had no phone contact for the owner but it happened that their gardeners were at the property and they were able to give me the owner's phone numbers. I called multiple times and left multiple messages (not cheap on prepay) and I sent emails and messages, and we sat with my grandmother in the car in the driveway, in the cold, for over 2 hours, wondering where we would stay the night if we couldn't get in touch with them. Eventually we found a number for another family member who was able to provide the alarm code. The owners were overseas, thus the difficulty of getting in touch. They sent a bunch of flowers the following day.
Could Be Improved: The owner's belongings were in the fridge, freezer, and kitchen, bedroom and bathroom cupboards which made it feel like we were trespassing in someone else's home. The bed my partner and I slept in was very uncomfortable and pillows lumpy and old. The linen and towels were as if they were the hand-me-down old towels from the extended families' houses. There was a mountain of bath towels but we could only scavenge up 2 face cloths. They bay windows are a lovely feature however are very draughty and along with the kitchen windows rattled a lot in the wind. The kitchen is very modern and nice however there is no microwave as listed in the "Details and amenities" section, and the special tap that dispensed boiling hot water did so by spraying it everywhere which seems so dangerous to me and I got splashed with hot water even though I was trying to be very careful. There is a fireplace however during our stay there didn't appear to be any kindling or wood if we did want to use it.
Oddity: There is a $150 cleaning charge paid on top of the accommodation price, yet their information folder in the house asks renters to remake beds with fresh sheets, which I thought was a bit strange/rude as, other than leaving the place in a tidy state overall I wouldn't think it's the renter's place to have to remake beds, vacuum or clean bathrooms - surely. We only read this on the last morning so didn't have time to remake beds. We stripped the beds, tidied up, took the rubbish out and ensured the dishwasher was loaded and set going, which I thought sufficient. If you have certain expectations of what state you want your house left in or what level of cleaning is expected along with the cleaning fee, it would be helpful to have this laid out before booking.
Overall: We enjoyed our stay and I think it wouldn't take too much in the way of improvements (ie. replace the bed, update the linens, reduce the amount of personal items or store them in a cupboard out of the way, add some adhesive draught stopper around the windows) to really improve the experience for future renters.