“Overall we had a nice stay.”
I think the owners have become complacent, the imagoes on the listing don’t portray the property accurately. The property is tired and needs some attention. In the first morning I did contact the owners who were very responsive and sent a handyman very quickly, I had reported that the heater in the attic room was broken, the shower in the en-suite didn’t drain, the kettle needed to be condemned and that a number of door handles kept coming off. The property is lovely and quite old so this needs to be taken into consideration, however this doesn’t excuse paint needing to be touched up in many places and tired furnishings. The separate games room is great and nice and warm. The advert lists a sauna and a gym, both of these were not operational, the sauna had cables in it and the gym’s floor had been taken up so was not usable and unsafe. I didn’t see anyone come to treat the hot tub with chlorine whilst we were there, they may have done but I doubt it. We have been to many houses as this is an annual trip, it was disappointing, there was no welcome pack, or pack of information about the local area or how to use things in the house (if there was one we didn’t find it). The DVD player in the small living room didn’t work properly, Indiana Jones is in it on repeat but it doesn’t play. There are a few nails stickling out of floor boards which are dangerous to bare feet, definitely recommend wearing slippers. There was no kindling for the fire. I’m not sure how often Sykes Cottages visit the properties they are promoting but looking at this one I think it needs to be more often as this experience has not encouraged us to use Sykes again for our trip next year. It is also important that visitors report things that are wrong as I imagine most of the time it is the cleaners who see the houses, not the owners. I do not feel we have received value for money.
