“We had booked to stay for two weeks and we were really looking forward to our time at 1 Park Nook Close but we were extremely disappointed and struggled to stay for the duration of our holiday.”
The photos implied this cottage was clean, well equipped and had an excellent location for exploring the area. On our arrival, we found that the cottage had been 'cleaned' to a sub-standard level, there was still dog hair on the furniture and the carpets. The two single beds had their duvet covers turned inside out leading me to conclude that these had not been changed, but merely turned inside out. The towels provided for a family of four were not adequate and had holes and a few stains on some of them. The light in the main bathroom had no cover leaving the bulb exposed to the moisture and condensation when having a shower. The shower tray in the ensuite had a big crack and previous reviews have mentioned the same, but clearly this has been utterly ignored by the owner. The hot tap in the kitchen clearly has its jet regulator that controls the flow of water missing, as whenever we turned it on, scalding hot water sprayed out and could have been catastrophic. The fridge is a ridiculous size and could barely hold enough food for a couple let alone a family of four. The bannister at the top of the stairs is loose and wobbles if you barely touch it. The narrow plank of wood that masquerades as a window sill in the lounge nearest the TV is not fitted properly and actually comes off if you touch it. Furthermore there is no booklet or helpful guide informing guests of when to put bins out or useful numbers to call, the owners themselves never bother answering calls or texts if you try and make contact with them. There was only ONE bin liner that we were expected to use, we were staying for TWO weeks! The electricity is very erratic and we had a few occasions where the lights went out usually only for a few seconds, except once when the power went out at 22.49 and did not get restored till nearly 2am. We were forced to sit in near darkness using light from our phone torch as even though there is a torch in the property, the batteries were dead so it didn't work and there are no candles. Furthermore, I woke up one morning with a tick attached to my back, which caused me and my family a lot of worry due to the possiblity of contracting Lyme disease. In the description, it states that there is 'some road noise', that is completely untrue - there were all manner of vehicles thundering past most of the day, but especially at night making it extremely difficult to get any sleep. Furthermore, the owners of the pub live next door and have dogs that barked incessantly at various times of the day. The owners themselves were loud and had no consideration for how their voices and shouts carried into 1 Park Nook Close. In addition to this, on the Saturday night, there was an event on at the pub where there was loud music pounding on till about 12.15am accompanied by swearing and shouts from the punters, some of whom chose to stand outside the bedroom window. The only positive are the beautiful views you get from the lounge windows but having paid nearly £900 for our stay, this hardly seems enough to justify this cost.
- Cheynella, September 2023
