Crown Gardens Holiday Homes Anmeldelser 

Stayed in trinket box cottages and had a fab time.
Perfect location and easy access to everything.
Easy booking, checking in and checking out.
Will use again.

Great property, great staff

Myself and 10 other ladies stayed in ‘The Townhouse, Brighton’ between Friday 27th-Monday 30th July 2018, for my best friends hen do. The total amount we paid was in excess of £1300. During check in when I introduced myself to the owner’s partner, she greeted me by telling me ‘that’s not the name I have here’ I was confused and trying to explain but told ‘don’t worry’. Firstly she and the owner Andrew need to communicate better with each other as this is just rude, however the owner did call me to say sorry. We then went into the property to be shown around. She seemed in a rush and was not welcoming or polite as such, she had an attitude which myself and the hen both noticed and this was embarrassing in front of my friend, who this trip was a surprise for.

The property is over 3 floors. The bottom floor was advertised as having a double bed and 2 singles. When we got there it was just 4 (tiny) single divan beds. The garden advertised as having ‘tables and chairs’, but literally had 4 metal chairs and no tables at all, for a property that says it can house 14? There was a plant pot on the floor which we were told we can throw our cigarettes butts in. The ground floor by the front door was covered in rules, printed and laminated and stuck over the walls as you walked in. All shoes were to be taken off at the front door and you had to walk to a different street nearby to dispose of your recycling (otherwise your deposit would be deducted). The bottom of the front door above the threshold had a strip missing so we was exposed to the outside by about 2 inches. In fact all of the external doors to the property were broken and difficult to shut, and all internal bathroom doors (3) had no locks on at all.

Upstairs to the middle floor there was a small landing, a kitchen to the left and a living room to the right. The hallway, kitchen and living room were plastered in rules all over the walls. The kitchen had up signs saying if we used the oven or microwave we had to fully clean it (otherwise your deposit would be deducted). The kitchen table stated it could seat 10, it could seat 8 at a push. In a house which is advertised as being able to sleep 14, there were about 5 wine glasses. The stack of plates and cups didn’t match either which is tacky to say the least. The living room had a small balcony, however the door couldn’t be shut flush so was never secure. The 2 sofa beds which are advertised as being able to sleep 4 were shocking. As we had 11 people staying, and one would have to use the sofa, we were made to pay £75 extra to use one of them. If the property is advertised as being able to sleep 14, and the sofa beds are already there, why on earth make guests pay potentially another £150 on top of the £1300 to use them?! The owner’s partner joked about it being uncomfortable during check in then saying ‘which unlucky person is sleeping on this?’ As we had paid £75 for the 11th person to be able to use it, I did not find this funny, it was disrespectful and awkward. How the property was advertised as being able to sleep 14 I will never know, once the sofa beds were laid down you had 2 extremely slim/uncomfortable ‘bed’ areas, with a metal strip separating them down the middle. Completely unfit for purpose and need replacing.

Up to the top floor. In front of the landing there was a small bathroom with a shower over the bath (but no shower curtain, so it couldn’t be used). To the right was a ‘Master bedroom’, advertised as having a king size double and a single. The king size was nowhere to be seen, and again, there were 3 tiny single divans. To the right of the landing, there was another bedroom with 3 single beds, and AGAIN, a Juliette balcony which did not shut/lock securely! It felt like we would break it even trying to get it shut. The sleeping arrangements were completely different on the site compared to what they were when we arrived, and luckily I have managed to be reimbursed the £75 I paid (almost anyway, I’ll get onto this). Every room in the house also had cheap tacky and unsightly air fresheners over the windowsills which stunk, we would have thrown them away but assumed this would be taken from our deposit.

11.10pm on Friday the doorbell rang. To our shock it was security telling us ‘if you don’t be quiet, we’ll deduct from your deposit’. How embarrassing. The TV/music had been off for at least an hour, and we were in the living room on the middle floor getting to know each other (as not all girls had met before), and we were playing games e.g. giving kickers to the hen, she guesses who they’re from, and a ‘how well does the groom know the bride’ game. Of course there was talking, laughing etc. Is this not normal for a house let out for hen dos? We were absolutely shocked and appalled, but in fear of losing our £400 deposit (I can tell you now even all the furniture in the house couldn’t have totalled to £400, you can pick the tables up with your little finger, and the beds are so small and light they physically move across the room when you sit on them), we kept it down, and in fact half of the house decided to go to their bedrooms. It was embarrassing and put a downer on the whole evening. Our ages ranged from mid-20’s (myself) to late 40’s, we are not a disrespectful group of teenagers who do not know how to behave.

After this it was constantly on our minds to keep the noise down and not speak/laugh too loudly, which is just ridiculous for a property advertised for hen parties. I received a txt from the owner Andrew on Sunday telling us that when we check out we must tidy and clean the house, clean the oven and microwave, take recycling to a street over to the road where the bins are and strip all of the beds ‘in order that your refundable security deposit is returned in FULL’, note that is a direct quote from my text messages. They were clearly finding every possible avenue to get their hands on our money. How on earth can you expect your guests to do their own bedding and cleaning for Christ sake, what was our £1300+ for 3 days spent on? In addition to this, the text message told us to leave at 10.30am, when it had been agreed our check out time was 11am. Again, worried our money would be taken from us we spent the whole of Sunday afternoon stripping beds, cleaning, tidying and checking the house. At this stage I even took photos of how we left the property which are time stamped on my phone in fear of them charging us for not cleaning right.

Monday morning Andrew (the owner), turned up just before 10.30am. He reminded us to take all of our recycling to a different road (Freshfield Way) as we were mid packing the car, and said that he was going to start putting our bedding in the washing machine. He mentioned absolutely nothing of a noise complaint. As he put the first load of washing in the machine on the ground floor he made a point of telling us ‘we used to charge you for this, £7.50 a set, but now I do it myself’. Again mentioning money, what was the need in telling me this? He also mentioned we could book again if we wanted, but made a point of telling us that his profit gets eaten into by the money Crown Gardens take for the bookings. He spoke of nothing but money, yet it is funny he mentioned nothing of a fine…

Which gets me to my last note. A few days after checking out I received an email from Crown Gardens to say they were deducting from our deposit because of noise complaints. Honestly this was just the icing on the cake. I am currently liaising with ‘Bex’ at Crown Gardens regarding this. When I questioned Bex, she advised me we’d had call outs at numerous times throughout the night (3am, 3.12am…). I told her that on the Friday night, which is when the patrol team initially ‘warned us’ to be quiet as soon as 11pm passed, we had all been asleep by 2am that night. I also advised her that if she was referring to the Saturday night, this was also false as most of the house were asleep as this time and the remaining 4 ladies got home at 4.10am, as they called my phone to let them in to save knocking the door. Bex’s response was we’ll check their body cameras and she has not responded to me since saying that, and to confirm, yes they have sent my deposit back WITH unauthorised deductions from it. I am absolutely appalled. As there were many other hen parties in the small close, I suggest they check their facts.

What they did offer me, was a partial refund of the price I paid for the house as they agreed it was falsely advertised to us as having things it didn’t. They have since told me that they have updated the details of the house on the Crown Gardens website to ensure it now matches the true picture, however I have checked their updates and all they have changed is the description of the beds. So to any future customers of the Townhouse Brighton, I encourage you to not book for a start, but if too late for this advice, make sure you check the property accurately against what they say you will get, and you can perhaps use this to get some of your money back too. Crown Gardens and the owner need to learn from their mistakes to stop this happening.

Lastly, please refer to another review on this thread by ‘Laura’ dated 5th December 2017. Note that Crown Gardens have wrote back to her taking no responsibility saying it is not one of their bookings, however you’ll see Laura’s review is verified, Crown Gardens actually invited her to make this review. If you put 2 and 2 together, you will see that Crown Gardens are a dishonest, shambles of a company who deserve bad feedback yet cannot handle it and instead tell their customers they are wrong or confused. Laura’s review is almost parallel to mine. This property needs to be taken off of their portfolio, the owners need to accept the fact that their property isn’t as big as they think and is of such a poor quality and totally unfit for purpose. Crown Gardens need to be stopped from ridiculing customer’s and renting this property to hens.

House as shown in pics lovely open plan spaces clean and ticks the boxes! The owners were extremely helpful definately recommend

Excellent service and great appartments. Would definitely use again!

excellent weekend, great location,, clean, spacious and helpful staff.

Good location
Nice size apartment
Balcony in need of some tlc (and furniture- non provided)

Great house and clean. The location was great and organising/ contacting owners was easy. The bedrooms did get very very hot but we did have amazing weather. The package for the bride was a nice touch.

Tiny cheap beds, 4 towels provided for 10 people. Very very basic facilities despite large cost. Poor quality furniture and fixtures, numerous electrical sockets not working. This is a party house, not a welcoming family house. Expect nowhere to put basics in bathrooms, only one step up from camping.

The Brighton Beach Apartment was excellent. Very high tech, nicely decorated and very comfortable. Brilliant location with spectacular views of the sea. Easy to get the keys from the safety box and full deposit returned quickly. Would definitely recommend to anyone staying in Brighton.

Excellent house and close to the beach .suited all of our needs for a hen party .As we have lovely weather this year we could have benefitted with some fans in the property as it was difficult to open windows . The collections of the bins opposite was very noisy and did wake us all about 6.30am , but at least the 15 of us were then up and out for 9am for a delicious breakfast on the seafront .

We're a friendly, helpful and so easy to use company. Would recommended them and use again

Although Crown and gardens were great at responding to my requests and quick to send back the deposit money I was disappointed with certain aspects of the property. The meal provided during our stay was absolutely delicious and I can’t fault Crown and Gardens at all

Lovely clean house , accommodated 17 of us. Down an alley to the front door. Rubbish & bottles etc hard to get rid off as the recycling bin and rubbish bins were quite a walk away to top of alley. Limited parking so off loading was a slight problem. Grocery delivery poor guy had to walk up and down the alley a few times. Keys easy to pick up. Some of the rooms could do with coat hooks on the wall (double bedded room ) nowhere to hang anything. Apart from these few things I would recommend.

I would say that there were a couple of issues with the apartment we rented. However Crown Gardens managed all aspects of our stay superbly. Our break was not impacted and we were grateful that Crown responded while we were booking our stay, during our stay to manage these issues and post our stay, in completing the let, superbly and in a very timely manner. No hesitations in recommending the 'let' we stayed in and Crown Gardens as a company.

We had booked a stay with Crown Gardens which we unfortunately had to cancel due to adverse weather conditions. The money paid to them was non refundable, but I must say that they were extremely helpful and sympathetic to our situation. Jill at their office was an absolute star in providing help to go towards our travel insurance claim, I cannot speak highly enough of her.

If you want to stay in a tiny house decorated with rules (i.e. take shoes off at the door, take all recycling to the bins over the road, don't make noise) then this place is for you. The owner lives next door to the property as all!! He texted about noise and threatened our deposit a few times!! We stayed in on the first night and played some games, we are not rowdy but we got at text about 10pm about the noise and the impact of a noise complaint if one was made (deposit will not be refunded). We ended the night early as we were too tense/worried, such a shame was we were having fun. I was gutted as I had spent months arranging this as my sisters hen do. The next day we got another text saying our deposit wouldn't be refunded if we didn't clean the oven and microwave - yes that's right, we were expected to do that ourselves. Definitely haven't stayed anywhere like this before, it was not relaxing at all. We took photos of all the damage around the house to ensure we wouldn't be blamed, luckily we weren't and we did get our deposit back.
We paid extra for 2 double sofa beds - these were a joke (not a funny one)!! They were double for children, certainly not big enough for adults. As a group of 14 this house was FAR too small. Brighton is lovely, but next time, I'll stay somewhere big enough without so many rules and without an owner who really shouldn't be renting holiday property

Excellent company to work with who are always so helpful and organised.

Highly recommended organising a hen party with these guys.

Butlers With Bums

Just great, perfect for exploring Brighton

Beds good comfortable. Wetroom good. Floor boards top of the first flight of stairs moved slightly when one alighted from the wetroom. Wooden chair arm on the standalone armchair kept falling off.