“We recently stayed at Gwyn Cottage in April for 2 nights, of a 7 nights booking.”
When we arrived the cottage was freezing cold, the old storage heater which was set at the lowest number was simply inadequate for the lounge & dinning room, which then leads directly into the kitchen, there is a radiator in the kitchen but this is located by the back door which was also on the lowest setting. We tried several times to put the storage heater up, but this did not work. There is a log burner in the lounge, but no promised supply of fire lighters, which we had to go out in the pouring rain & purchase ourselves. (Please note there is no parking at the cottage the lane is far too narrow, you can only unload your bags. You then have to try & find a car space in the village, which proved to be difficult for the two days we were there). Please note the front garden is a shared garden with another neighbour on the opposite side next door. The log burner would have been great for heating the cottage as we have one at home, but I was recovering from a severe chest infection & having the fire lite proved to be difficult. There should be alternative adequate heating available in either central heating or other. There is also very limited hot water, set for 1 hour per day in the mornings, please note if you have a bath in the morning you are then without hot water for the rest of the day. The cottage is old & dated with a mixture of very old & old furniture. The kitchen is very basic with a kettle, toaster, microwave & fridge freezer, that is it. There is very little in the way of storage & counter space. The cooker was very dirty & the top had not been cleaned, we have taken lots of photos of everything we encountered & to evidence everything. There were also spiders & webs in a lot of the rooms. It is the start of the season & we would expect that the cottage would be really clean & warm. We attempted for 2 days to knock next door, where the advertised caretaker lives to try & resolve the heating & hot water issue but to no avail. Whilst out in the garden having coffee on the Monday morning we saw a Rat come out from under the summer house in the garden & run down towards the open french doors to the kitchen, it then ran down the side of the house. We again tried the caretaker next door but to no avail, & decided to contact the owner. She was very apologetic & explained that the caretaker had been away at a family celebration & wouldn’t be back for a couple of days. The owner explained that she would arrange for the caretaker to come and see us when they were back & turn up the heating & extend the hot water availability, & arrange for poison to be put down & for some netting to be placed around the summer house to stop the Rats getting into the garden. Although the owner was apologetic & polite, she didn’t seem to grasp the seriousness of the situation. How she imagined that we would want to stay with Rats in the garden, as well as poison being laid and the risk to our little dogs, is beyond us. We contacted Sykes straight away & paid for a second cottage & moved that day. We messaged the owner & explained that this situation was not acceptable to us & that we were moving to another cottage & would be seeking a full refund. Throughout her messages, which we have saved, She was quite hesitant to discuss our refund, until we made it very clear that we would be contacting environmental health & the council. Suffice to say we received our full refund the following morning. We would NOT recommend this cottage for obvious reasons.
We were very sorry to read your review and list of issues. Gwynn cottage is normally very warm and toasty, even without the log burner being lit. Apart from the storage heater in the lounge, the radiator in the kitchen and the two heaters upstairs provide a good level of heat usually. The couple who look after the cottage for us were away that weekend unfortunately, but their mobile number is in the welcome pack as a first port of call and they are always available by phone, and always go the extra mile for guests. They have a team of staff who would’ve been able to pop round on that Saturday and sort the heating out in an instant. When I became aware of the situation and spoke to them, they sent someone round with firelighters within a couple of hours.
They would also have been able to put the hot water on for longer, which we have now instigated, so the hot water comes on twice a day, and there should be plenty of hot water all day long.
We were also sorry to hear the comments about the furniture as it was mostly bought brand-new last year, as were the curtains, blinds, soft furnishings, and linen. It is of a more classic style which is in keeping with the age of the cottage.
The kitchen is small, but is well equipped and does also have a dishwasher and washing machine.
Our team are usually fastidious with the cleaning, and the cottage had been used throughout the winter and had six hours of cleaning every week prior to occupation.
We took the matter of a rat in the garden, very seriously. No one had seen a rat in the garden previously and I’m happy to say no one has seen one since (and we have been pretty much fully booked since then).We did put some safe poison down at the time for a few weeks in special rat traps that were not accessible to any visitors dogs. We discovered in the shed some grass seed which we think had attracted the rat in from the surrounding farmland, and so no longer keep anything remotely edible in the shed.
We had no issue in refunding you your money, but we needed to speak to Sykes first to check their position on the situation and how we went about it. Unfortunately, due to work commitments, we were unable to speak to them for a couple of days, hence the delay. We are very sorry if the lack of communication for a couple of days caused any angst. We certainly were attempting to make things right for you.
Best wishes
Louise and Paul
Property Owner
