“Disappointing”
Stayed here beginning of December for my husband's 70 th birthday, booked by my daughter as a surprise.There were 5 couples and 5 children comprising of our 4 daughters and their spouses. I'll start with the positives,
Great location
Beautiful old house
Beautifully decorated for Christmas with a big tree in the hallway.
Clean beds
Great views
Impressive dining room.
Friendly owner called Mary who greeted us initially as my husband and I were 1st to arrive about 4.30.
NEGATIVES
As soon as we entered the house there was a strong smell of fuel, were told that they'd had some problems with the boiler and the aga and that the smell would disperse by the following morning, said her husband was up till 1 in the morning that day trying to fix it. She showed us round the rest of the house.
Radiator in twin bedded not working, small electric heater instead.
Radiator in double bedroom (7ft bed) not working,
Had arranged before hand re cot for our 3mth old granddaughter, (as advised on website) couldn't see one, was told there were 2 travel cots under the bed in the double room where the radiator did not work.
My husband and I had to take the small twin room downstairs (bearing in mind it was his birthday) as myself being the shortest at 5ft 1in , one of the beds in this room was just long enough for me, my feet touched the wardrobe if I laid flat on my back. This room really only suitable for children so in effect house sleeps 4 couples and their young children/ teenagers at a push.
Owner said she would inform her husband re radiator in double room and would be along later to try and fix it. ( we took the heater from the twin bedded up as this was the room the baby was in).
Was supposed to return with linen for the travel cot and a tablecloth for the large table in the dining room, never appeared.
Saturday, preparing the birthday meal, one son in law went for a bath with the baby, suddenly water started pouring from the ceiling into the kitchen, there was a crack in the ceiling to begin with. A daughter rang the gentleman owner's phone as we were afraid the ceiling would collapse, reply was, won't collapse as I've fixed it! Unable to have a bath in this after.
Many of the kitchen trays and pans we had to wash before use, crockery was clean. Kitchen cupboards were generally a bit messy( with exception of crockery cupboards) could do with a good clean.
There was a piece of wood fixed to the back of the sink behind the taps which was beginning to discolor and every time the tap was on water seemed to leak from underneath, very unhygienic.
As previously mentioned in a couple of other reviews, the house could do with a good clean, I think it's very hard for the lady to keep up with this on her own.
Were also told not to bother with the tv's as previous people kept moving monitors and boxes, and probably would not work, this should have been addressed before we arrived.
Could go on , but to numerous to mention,
What spoilt the whole week end was the smell of fuel, which worsened Sunday night, most of our party left on the Sunday, my husband, daughter, baby and myself left on Monday morning.
I looked for the owners , nobody about, my husband rang the owner's mobile and left a message, stating just a courtesy call before we leave and he did state that the week end was spoilt due to the strong smell of fuel. Half way home we received a call from the gentleman owner, in which he stated it should be fixed for the following wk end for a big party that have been coming for years, my husband did say, well that does not help us, we felt that they had ample time to fix this before we arrived as the lady said that there was nobody in the house at least a week before we came.
My daughter on her return that day, contacted Sykes to inform them of the problems we'd had and that was not all as advertised.
That evening my husband received a call from the gentleman owner, who was a bit "shirty" in his attitude, stating, why had we left negative feed back with Sykes, and we hadn't got the guts to leave comments in the visitors book, To be truthful the visitor book was the last thing on our minds trying to fit everything in the car of baby stuff and to leave the house in reasonable state. We stripped all the beds as we were asked to do( I don't really think that we should be having to do this) as the lady said it saves her about an hour and a half if we did this.
Was also told that we had cracked a window in the lounge, ??? We hardly spent any time in there, we sat on the Sat. evening when the children were in bed.
Shame, such a lovely house, looks tired, needs modernizing esp. the kitchen.
Gave it 3 stars for location and potential.
- elanleaney, January 2016
