"Me and my Partner booked a 5 Night stay at The Old Dog which we were very much looking forward too, as we were celebrating my Birthday within the Peak District."
On arrival the Apartment was beautifully decorated and located in a scenic area. Upon closer inspection the Property wasn't overly clean, the floors looked as if they hadn't been hoovered and were covered in stains, light switches were dirty, there was sticky residue all over the TV and Kitchen worktops and overall the Property was dusty and not very clean.
Within a few Hours of our stay after prepping raw Chicken for Dinner we noticed we had no running Hot Water coming through any of the Taps, so we messaged our Host (Ross) to inform him. Ross replied back within half an hour later telling us that we would need to run the water for a few minutes as the Tank was downstairs (which in fact turned out to be a lie, it was within our Apartment we was staying in), so we attempted to run the hot water for a good 15 minutes, no hot water was still coming through. I messaged Ross again to inform him the hot water was still not coming through. Ross then offered to come up that evening or the following day, but as there was no hot water I ideally wanted him to come up that evening to have a look and I did state the importance of the Hot Water as we were unable to wash our hands hygienically or wash up (as there was no dishwasher or other facilities available to wash up our pots and pans from Dinner). Ross didn't then respond for 2 Hours which at this point was 9:30pm and said he couldn't come until the following Afternoon and that we can boil a kettle and use the Electric Shower in the meantime to wash our hands. We were slightly disappointed as Ross didn't seem apologetic, nor to make the issue a priority and was quite happy to leave his guests 24 hours without working hot water. At this point we had contacted Sykes Cottages to inform them of the situation and to see if there was anything they could help with. Sykes were very apologetic and shocked with the response we had received from Ross and arranged to contact him, to which he did not answer. I believe they managed to speak to him at some point, as Ross made a diggy comment to us about us contacting Sykes, which we had every right in doing so as they were the 3rd Party who we booked our stay through and had paid.
Ross then didn't come until 1pm the following day, when he arrived he said he has used the "boost" button on the immersion to see if that would get the hot water working and that he would come back again at 7/8pm to see if it had worked. When Ross attended we soon came to realise that the immersion tank was not downstairs as Ross had mentioned, it was in fact within the Apartment, so the water did not have "a long way to travel". So Ross lied to us. However, the "Boost" option didn't work! At this point we was reaching 30 hours without working hot water.
My Partner is a fully qualified Electrician and has been for the last 15 Years, he even offered to take a look at the Immersion free of charge, where Ross straight up said "no". Ross then told us he had a final back up plan and said he could light the Fires downstairs in the Pub to get the old Back Boiler working. We was against this plan as it was 25 degrees weather and the Apartment was hot enough as it was, there was also no fans within the Apartment either. The Pub is also shut on a Monday and Tuesday and we didn't like the idea of the Fires being lit in an unmanned, locked Pub that we were currently living above, especially when no one else was living on site with access to the Pub and Ross and his Family do not live within the Village the Pub / Apartment is located in. So if a fire was to breakout there would be no one around to notice it breaking out or access the Pub to try and prevent the fire from spreading. However, Ross decided to go against our decision and light the Fires anyway. He lit the Fires and waited until he left to then text me to say he had lit the Fires regardless as he thought this was a "right option" than us having no hot water, and said he would get his Electrician to come out the following day and would give us an update in the Morning. We was very displeased that Ross went against us despite us saying we did NOT want the Fires lit and also the fact he didn't come upstairs and speak to us in person and informed us over text, which we felt was a cop out. On that Night the Property was unbearably Hot, at 11pm it was 17C outside, but the Apartment was 26C inside, we feel that the Fire being lit impacted this.
On our first interactions with Ross we found him rude, ignorant, arrogant and unhelpful.
It was the next Morning and lo and behold Ross did not message us. We left it until 12pm to give Ross a chance to message us, but he did not, so we sent him a text message asking for an update and asked him when we were to expect his Electrician to arrive. Surprise, Surprise Ross did not reply, we left it until 3pm and called Sykes to see if they could get us some answers for us as Ross was no longer responding. Within 15 minutes of our phone call to Sykes, Ross then respond to our text message. He sent us a not so pleasant message and informed us this his Electrician was unavailable and couldn't come until the next day (meaning it would've taken 4 days from when the issue was initially raised for an Electrician to attend). Ross made no further attempts to get another Electrician to attend, which we think is very poor. We finally got hot water from the Back Boiler around lunch time, meaning we was left with no hot water for a total of 48 Hours.
The Electrician finally arrived on the Thursday (day 4) and advised the immersion would require replacing and would be need to be drained down and that it would be a 2 day Job. So nothing was going to be done about it during our stay. Ross still at this point did not apologise for the inconvenience. As we only had 2 more nights left we decided to stay and try to be out of the Property as much as we could and have as little interaction with Ross.
There were many issues with our stay and the Property to be completely honest. The whole Property lacked equipment, there was no Hoover, no Mop, no Fan/Fans, no Washing Machine, no Airer or Laundry Line, all the Radiators were covered by Radiator Covers so you was unable to dry anything if you decided to wash anything it by hand, the Kitchen lacked equipment, we had to buy our own Washing up liquid as we were left a dribble on arrival, the Toilet was wobbly (not the seat, the actual toilet), the Wifi did not work half of the time and when it did work it didn't reach the Bedroom, there was no mention of where to put your rubbish if your bin was to get full, you was unable to use the Microwave as the Plates and Bowls had a gold foiled rim, so whenever you went to put the Plates or Bowls into the Microwave it would just spark. We only had 1 working pan too, as 1 out of the 4 pans that were provided were not induction so did not work on the induction Hob. We were only given 2 Body Towels (1 each) and as there was no washing machine we had no other option but to use the same Towel for the whole duration of our stay (5 Nights and 6 Days), we found this pretty gross, especially when the weather was extremely hot. We don't believe the Property is very well thought-out and that the Host really has the heart to be Renting out the Property.
Me and my Partner go on staycation breaks every 6 Months and this has to be the worst experience and worse Host we have ever encountered. There was even one evening we decided to have Dinner at the Pub and Ross saw us, looked us up and down, blanked us and walked off when we approached the Bar, which we thought was very RUDE! Not that we expected this, but Ross did not even offer us a Drink on the house to make up for the inconvenience caused, let alone could even give us an apology.
Overall we definitely will not be returning and in all honesty if the Apartment was not located where it was we would've left within the first 48 Hours. We would only recommend this Property if you are staying for a short period of time, as the Property is not well equipped for long durations, and that you have working Heating and Hot Water and do not have to deal with the unhelpful Host, Ross.
Reviewed by Thomas1.9★Jun 2024