Reply to Away Resorts Senior Management

Dear Member

Following the email yesterday from Away Senior Management in response to several issue raised by owners, we have responded to their communiction as follows.:

“Following our circulating the email which you kindly shared with us yesterday, I felt it necessary that you should see some of the feedback that has flooded into my inbox overnight which is mostly pretty self explanatory.

As the FBOA, we have worked hard with owners and the management of the Bay to minimise you being inundated with numerous owner complaints and issues, but the high level of adverse feeling necessitates the sharing of the following with you.

Please respond to the owners (via ourselves) in full (and therefore expand on the previous questions raised) so we can share your comments with owners.

Best wishes

Anthony
FBOA Secretary

Message 1
As you are aware, by no means does this response actually address or rectify the situation. In particular, the Meadows development requires a number of other issues to be resolved.

Please can you ensure that these are taken up. I have also raised them on a personal level, as have many other owners of properties on the Meadows.

Message 2
Anthony, thank you for raising these issues. However, we feel we are just being fobbed off with the ususal trite responses that do not really address the issues. No mention of doing anything to ensure owners and guests get first option for swimming for example. Disappointed to say the least if that’s how much senior management care!

Message 3
Thank you for sharing.. Not sure if I missed it but is there any mention of their cheap pricing on the properties they let out, devaluing the site and private let properties..
Re them saying the facilities are priced in accordance with other venues around the area, this isn’t the case. The JPJ is expensive, and from my experience my guests and visitors only ever visit once as they feel ‘ripped off’.. The menu is somewhat underwhelming too, and doesn’t represent value for money,
They’ve admitted to one month without window cleaning. My windows haven’t been cleaned in 12 months and I’m sure I’m not the only one. The Bay management need to monitor this to ensure we are getting what we pay for.
The pool situation with guests and owners being unable to use it because of “outsiders” is ridiculous, and they need to sort this..
Overall I’m not impressed with Away or their management of the site.. Having said that, thank you Anthony for your continued efforts of banging our combined drum, I hope they get a grip and respect our investment and concerns regarding these shortfalls.

Message 4
Thanks for your efforts Anthony. The response I wasnt too happy with was leaving the poolside repairs til winter, it looks awful for guests, is a trip hazard and is unhygienic….. they need forward planning instead of waiting until things look shabby

Message 5
First of all I am angry on behalf of the FBOA volunteers who have worked so hard to make this happen and this is the answer we get. If only Away worked as hard! The security reply is shameful, so too is the football weekend.
We are all too aware that our lease and their breaches doesn’t seem to have any clout. However the one thing that IS written in stone is that of window cleaning. Their reply blatantly admits a breach. I want a refund for the failure to deliver.

Message 6
With reference to the security/emergency contacts, this just doesn’t work, as this is what they are doing at present.
How can they demonstrate the proper management and security of the village (as per the lease) with no appointed person in place during the day patrolling the village. They cannot manage site rules etc, if they are not actively patrolling? Most of the rules are breached during the day, parking, ball games etc.
It is clear in the lease they are responsible for the proper management and security of the village
Just a point about the lodge, the finish on the outside (wooden boards) doesn’t reflect the planning I believe? Should this be pointed out to them, or are they intending to re-clad the lodge, with the same Cedral cladding, colours etc?

Message 7
The standards of accommodation we will only ever know after another damning TA review.

It would have been nice for them to acknowledge that we are a holiday village not a caravan site with a fleet of properties especially as some of the properties on the bay are worth £400,000+

It would have been reassuring if they had confirmed that privately owned properties would not be let out until they had been upgraded to a good standard.  There was no mention of the quality of the cleaning.  This is the root of a lot of the issues and will in turn lead to bigger issues if not checked.  We need to be assured that they have some kind of quality assurance that signs off properties before being allowed to be occupied.

The Sleepers response is quite worrying.  I think that they need to be seen to be doing something proactive. Was the recent accident reported to the HSE?

No response about the owners and guests from Bay being denied access in preference to outside visitors to the pool.  We must push them to make it fairer for people from The Bay to have priority.

With regard the May booking.  This is clearly going to be a potential flare point.  I fear from the response that if things do go the same way they did last year they will be quite rightly bombarded with complaints from owners.  I think that they may be burying their heads on this one.  We need a clear indication that the site rules would be issued to all guests arriving and circulated amongst private owners who let out.  If guests are not told what the site rules are; how can they be expected to follow them.  I think that is critical if they are going to ensure a smooth weekend.  Not to mention the upholding of the rules the rest of the time.

Hopefully, the meadows road will be sorted.

Message 8
Thanks for sharing. It’s an underwhelming response. Do you think they run their other sites like this? I’m coming to the conclusion they don’t want to retain The Bay.