“Overall, we were disappointed with Hilltop.”
We had a problem with the gas supply to the hob which became a major disruption to our holiday.
The gas supply to the hob was erratic with a very small flame eventually appearing on the rings for the first few days of the holiday. By Wednesday there was no gas coming through at all. We had to drive about a mile to get a phone signal as there was no WiFi or landline in the house on several occasions throughout Thursday, speaking first to a local contact and then on three occasions to yourselves. Each telephone conversation occasioned a separate trip as we waited for some progress. Eventually the owner (Simon) contacted my husband and advised he could not get a gas engineer until the following morning. That evening, we eventually managed to get some gas at the hob enough to cook a meal for our visitors. Catherine then arrived with her daughter and interrupted our dinner saying she had to take a photo of the gas hob for Simon. The following morning (Friday) Catherine arrived just after 9am with a gas engineer who eventually managed to fix the problem by installing a new regulator to the gas cylinder. The whole incident was very inconvenient and disappointing.
Separately, I would comment that the cottage had a lack of homeliness in that the bare necessities were present but there were, for example, no coathooks, no towel rail or hooks in the bathroom, no pictures on any of the walls, no cushions on the sofa and no additional blankets in the bedrooms. Also there were no instructions on how to operate any appliances and very minimal information about the local area. There was no information about local services, Doctor, Shops, Restaurants etc. Finally, the garden was described as a "lawn" but was very rough terrain and pasture with cow dung all over the area. These may seem trivial points but such features do make a positive difference to the feel of a holiday home. The wood-burning stove appeared to be poorly installed and was uncontrollable and there was no information on local supplies of firewood.
We have used self-catered properties for over 25 years and whilst Hilltop looked appealing on your website I would have to rate it as a poor experience.