Oban Holiday Home's Elmbank garden apartment
Obanholidayhome.com Elmbank garden apartment - Without prejudice.
June 2021: Our concerns with this property, apart from the unsmiling, dour welcome we received on arrival are:
Overall, quite cramped [side entrance the width of a large suitcase] accommodation, unloved and a bit grubby / worn.
Reasonable but very compact kitchen area;
A small seating area with basic model television.
A bedroom area with flooring which was starting to peel upwards, perhaps becoming a trip hazard. The double bed was up against one wall, forcing the person there to climb over their partner; the bed had a mattress whose springs twanged at the briefest movement; the bedlinen had a musty smell and felt damp.
A tiny loo/ shower area, windowless, with a very noisy, crude extractor fan; three medium sized towels which had seen much much better days [we left them unused]. The bathroom floor covering was cracked and, as elsewhere in the apartment, the skirting was grubby.
Wall mounted electric heaters but operated from elsewhere / or on a timer.; no heat from them. Only the water based one by the TV came on in the evening; the towel rail remained cold.
The hair drier rattled badly as if it had something jammed inside it.
The small decking area at the rear needed a good scrubbing; the view outwards was mostly blocked by the neighbour’s large rough-cast concrete garage which, additionally, was situated very close to the accommodation.
The entrance door would not, initially, lock: it needed work on it in order to get it to function as the slam plate was literally falling off(which is presumably why we were told “ … the key is in the lock and the door unlocked”.)
Immediately upon viewing this accommodation, at 3 p.m. that Saturday, my wife telephoned the forthcoming Tuesday evening hotel to book an extra night (Monday 7th) and then telephoned Mr. Scott, to explain we would spend two nights there, not three. “No problem” was his sole response.
That Saturday p.m. we shopped for provisions, walked around Oban - and spent a very unhappy, uncomfortable night and again on Sunday night after our visit to Mull. On Monday we left the accommodation before 8 a.m. Despite the family obviously being present in the house - and our car was obviously parked in their drive both evenings - no-one came near us, no enquiries or offers of help were made to us, apart from the delightful family dog who rushed to greet us every time we appeared. It would happily have got into our car and left with us. It was certainly the only friendly face we saw at Elmbank, Croft Road, Oban PA34 5JN.
£240.00 is not much money but that was still too much for this somewhat grubby and basic standard apartment. We wonder when this accommodation was last inspected. Photos available.