“This lodge has been incorrectly advertised; therefore we have been mis-sold and would like to make a complaint.”
The second picture on your listing doesn't look like the same place and on the other images the furniture is different. I understand that owners can refurbish and perhaps not update the images but therefore it should be to a similar standard, especially when the lodge is advertised as "stylish", with "hi-spec and smartly-furnished interiors". The black leather-look couches had been replaced by something that looked like nana’s old sofa! It was faded and obviously second-hand.
The towels were all mismatched and small - there was no way they could be classed as bath towels. They were also threadbare and several of them had multiple pulled strings hanging off, they were really not fit for purpose! There were also no extras, which should be a given when there is a hot tub, especially when no robes were provided either.
Luckily we brought our own robes, however there was nowhere to hang them to dry except over the bedroom/bathroom doors.
There was only hand soap in one bathroom and no spare toilet roll in either bathroom. There was no bath mat in the en-suite bathroom.
One of the bedside table drawer fronts in the double room was hanging off and the quilt cover looked faded.
The lodge sleeps four, and is advertised as having a "well-equipped kitchen", yet the equipment consisted of mismatched plates and old cooking ware - again obviously second hand from somewhere - only 2 flute glasses, 1 decent wine glass (and 2 very small ones), as well as a stained old tea towel. There were tea, coffee containers etc, yet not even a starter pack of a couple of tea bags was provided.
Luckily one friend hadn't set off yet so we asked her to bring half a dozen of her own bath towels, champagne flutes, wine glasses and tea bags (as we understood the lodges to be individually owned so felt guest information may well be unable to fulfill our requests), which is ridiculous for a supposedly self contained lodge!
As we don't often get quality time together (hence booking 2-nights away every year), we didn't want to spend our limited break complaining at the time, so we decided to make the best of it and get on with enjoying each others company.
With Wilco, Ikea etc - and how Belfry Lodge is advertised - there really is no excuse for using *obviously* second hand equipment and furniture. It was frankly substandard for paying guests and nowhere near the 'stylish' break we were looking for.
I would appreciate someone looking into this and contacting me to follow up on offering a refund for being seriously mis-led over the quality of the accommodation.
- Ms Caseldine, February 2018
