“I would normally tick Yes to publishing my review, but I didn't want my personal thoughts to be available for others to read.”
The cottage took my breath away when we first arrived and after a few hours we realised what a fabulously equipped house this was, and presented to a very high standard. The only drawbacks, for me personally, were the beds which were very hard. Now it seems unfair to give a poor review simply because I found them uncomfortable and many people like a hard bed. My husband was ok sleeping in the bed in the ensuite room, our son and daughter in law had the room with the cot for the baby, and were happy with their bed. I used the first bed in the twin room, but it was narrow and a lumpy, but happily I did sleep reasonably well on it. We all found the sofas uncomfortable too, and spent most evenings on the dining chairs.
We did have two issues while staying at the house. The weekend we arrived was stormy with high winds and the loft hatch in the room our young family used flipped out at an angle, exposing roof space. We rang Amy straight away and she and her husband arrived quickly and fixed the problem, saying they would report it to the owners. We got on very well with Amy, it turned out she had previously spent some years living in a town only 4 miles from our hometown, and we spent some time chatting about the area. It felt like finding a new friend! She and her husband were lovely.
On our second Friday we experienced a sudden and unexplained loss of electrical power at around 4.30pm. We were due to leave the next day, Saturday 27th. We rang Amy and did not receive a reply. We rang several times during the evening and did not receive any response, which puzzled us greatly - we even wondered if something had happened to her that prevented her from ringing us. We had planned an oven meal but had to make do with the microwave, which wasn't great because pastry was involved. We contacted Sykes and there was little support there either. I will be contacting them separately about our experiences.
At around 9.30pm we decided to look at the fuse box, having originally agreed that guests shouldn't really be inspecting the electrics of holiday homes... We discovered that the shower in the family bathroom was tripping out the switches, so we isolated that switch and thankfully the rest of the power was restored.
We left just before 10am on Saturday morning, I stripped the beds and left the bedding/towels in one of the bedrooms as no plastic bags were available for us to use. I cleaned both bathrooms and all the kitchen areas, and cleaned all the bedroom surfaces. I didn't clean the floors on departure, but had hoovered when our family left during the middle weekend. (Amy did offer to bring us clean sheets to change in the middle weekend, but she must have forgotten, and although I had texted her on Monday 15th, I didn't have a reply).
At around 10.30am on the Saturday we began receiving Amy's messages, full of very sincere apologies, which we accept. She explained that they live in a 'poor signal area' and she had not received any messages until around 10.20 that morning. We were quite surprised by this - how did she manage to be the 'Emergency Contact' when she was not contactable due to poor signal? The Information Pack (very well put together) repeats her Emergency Contact Number through almost every page. But she could not be contacted! In replying to her messages, I did suggest that in case of an emergency there should also be a landline number to ring. I also felt that the owners' numbers should be included for times when Amy might not be able to respond (or for a really serious emergency - what if there was a crisis involving water..?) However, for several hours we were pretty worried. And we felt let down, by Amy, by Sykes and by the owners too.
There were so many great things about staying at Pen-y-Les, it really is a wonderful holiday home, with a very high specification. Simon and Joanne have put a lot of work, effort and money into making it a truly wonderful holiday home, and it wouldn't be right to take that away from them, hence this private review.
Thank you for your lengthy report which I am now able to respond to.
Firstly I am sorry that you found all of the beds 'uncomfortable'. They have all been purchased within the last 3 years from a hotel supplier and am sorry if they are not to your liking. We have subsequently discovered that there is a fault on one of the single mattresses and that is being replaced.
Similarly the sofas are all recent purchases - 'lazy boy' brand so I am not sure why you found them a problem.
As regards the problem with the electrics, these are all regularly checked and certified. If one of the circuit breakers tripped , then that is what they are designed to do and of course it is legitimate to check the fuse box to resolve this. It is interesting that you say you had to use the microwave rather than the oven because of this - both are electric. There is also no electric shower in either bathroom so not clear what you mean by isolating this.
As regards our cleaner/Housekeeper, Amy, she has been suffering with poor health and has subsequently been replaced.
I trust this answers your queries.
Property Owner
