Dog Friendly Cottages in Stow On The Wold

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Catherine - Verified booking

  Stayed for one week in Benfield with parents and our toddler.

  We SO wanted to love this place after the great reviews on here and the pretty pictures. However, as charming as the cottage was, we couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed with a few elements. Let’s start with the good stuff. As I said, the cottage is utterly charming and the rural decor makes it welcoming and cosy. The downstairs space is great – it was nice to have ‘zones’, so in a big group you can separate off either into the front room, the dining area or the conservatory. They’re connected enough to not be isolating, so you can still chat from each room, but you’re not all cooped up in one communal area. The beds were really comfortable. As other reviews have commented, the road is busy and noisy, making it impossible to open the windows on a hot evening, but with some ear plugs, the less light sleepers among us had a good night’s sleep. The location was perfect for enjoying the many delights the Cotswolds has to offer. We did way more than we anticipated because there was so much on the doorstep and Stow-on-the-Wold itself is gorgeous, with lots of pretty little shops and some great pubs. On the downside, the courtyard area was unclean. Not sure when it was last swept, but the paving was dirty and the bench and cushions were filthy - making it pretty unappealing to sit out there. It’s such a shame because it could be a really great addition to the house, but at the moment it’s a real waste of the space. A large chunk of it is taken up by the Wheelie bin, which itself wasn’t quite big enough for a week’s worth of rubbish for a group of seven. Appreciate space is limited, but it could’ve been better organised. Maybe some housing around the bin. There was also no recycling bin, so everything ended up in one place. We didn’t expect there to be an Aga and no traditional oven (there’s a microwave, and mini oven in the pantry). While it was very beautiful, we had to rethink our evening meals somewhat and it made the downstairs area very hot on a warm summer’s day (it’s not advisable to turn off as it takes such a long time to heat up again). There was a wide array of crockery, utensils and cookware in the kitchen, but quite a few hadn’t been washed properly. The bathroom on the first floor has a beautiful roll top bath, but only a handheld shower head with no curtain or screen. So no matter how careful you were, the bathroom got soaked with water splashing either off the bath or your body. The bathroom on the second floor had such a low wattage bulb in it, we had to keep the door open to see what we were doing. We had a good experience with the owner - very prompt responses - and we were very grateful to be allowed to check in an hour early, but on the whole the cottage itself is currently a bit disappointing in places.

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• Heather - Verified booking

  The house is situated in a delightful setting in Stow, very easily accessible by car and perfectly situated for getting around to explore the town, shops and pubs on foot.

  The house is well presented and we stayed over the festive period and I was worried about cooking Christmas dinner for the whole family with limited kitchen accessories and equipment but this was not the case at all, there were many pots, pans and baking equipment it was easier here than at home! One let down of the house is the dining arrangement, the chairs are oversized and seat 6 adults snuggly, we had a family member visit for the day and although it’s an eight sleeper house getting 8 chairs around the table in the space in the house would be rather uncomfortable. All the bedrooms has plenty of storage and were comfortable to sleep in but watch your head in the eaves of the two upstairs rooms! The second bedroom downstairs which feels like a garage conversion was always cold even with the radiator turned up. Again the bathrooms were a good size with good towels and the showers were nice with lots of hot water. Remember to bring your own toilet roll though as we were left with four rolls for 6 adults for a week. One minor tweak is that the larger downstairs shower could have a rail added to make is more accessible for those with mobility issues, one of our guests struggles with mobility and felt uncomfortable using the shower without a rail. The house was generally well presented and clean, however when we arrived the cleaning team were still working hard but a few areas could have been swept better, there were some sweets under the sofa and confetti left in the dining chairs but these were small things. We did thoroughly enjoy our stay and would recommend this house and the pub across the road!

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• Sue - Verified booking

  So here is the positives- the building, stone floors, beams, pieces of beautiful furniture Negative that really ruined our holiday.

  Before we went and due to finances we planned to eat in most of the time. My husband has asthma and uses an inhaler, as soon as we arrived and opened the door there was a really overpowering smell of air freshener. There was numerous bottles of liquid air freshener containing the bamboo sticks, the smell was so strong and sweet that you could taste it when you was drinking. I removed numerous bottles, some even in plant pots of flowers. My husband really suffered with his breathing and used his inhaler several times a day. As we have been going to the cotswolds for 20 years this was supposed to be a restful time spent in the cottage but due to the smell even when I had moved the airfreshners outside we had to spend as much time as possible out of the cottage, which also meant eating out every night which isn’t what we wanted to do. Even though I moved them outside the yard area is very small so even when I had shut the door you could still smell them. I’m sure some more must have been buried in the house that I couldn’t find A few other small things there is that much stuff in the cottage you really lose the beauty of it it’s as if there has been a need to fill every space with something. There is well over 20 spoons, knifes and forks, lost count of how many bowls and coffee pots, what this also did was leave lack of space should you want to food shop and store I contacted Sykes and they was very good and offered to send someone round but there wasn’t anything they could do that I hadn’t Such a shame our holiday was ruined

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• Ian - Verified booking

  Property was super and we really enjoyed our stay.

  House was well located just a few minutes walk from the town centre via a nearby cut-through. Easy parking outside. Although weather was cold outside when we arrived, the house was warm inside and during our stay. Property was good throughout with decent showers and hot water always available. House was clean, kitchen well equipped (but could do with better cereal bowls and there was no salt and pepper!). Appliances all worked fine. Lounge had comfy sofas. Nice to see a few family games there too. Lounge also had a good but older style smart TV. This worked well, with Netflix and a few streaming apps. An HDMI cable was required to connect our laptop for games and other streaming services. Fortunately we had our own. Upstairs bedrooms were roomy and the beds comfy. There was a table tennis table in the garage. A bit cramped but we did manage a short game! Only a very small enclosed patio area outside. Worth noting especially if you have a dog or small children but not an issue to us as we didn’t use it. Finally, it was nice to have a welcome pack on arrival! All in all a great place to stay. Stow is a lovely town with several small shops to browse, great pubs and restaurants and lots of walking nearby even in the middle of winter!

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• Emma - Verified booking

  We loved the property and it was perfect for our needs.

  The following are simply things that you might wish to consider in order to make future guests even more comfortable: - the Internet in back bedroom (the one that has been converted from the garage) is non existent. Difficult as a visitor from overseas - I churned through my roaming data. Maybe consider a booster? By the way, I did not find this room cold at all, as some previous reviews have mentioned. - we needed to leave a day early for family reasons and therefore received the departure instructions after we left. We looked everywhere in the house for them, as I like to leave properties exactly as the owner wishes, but there was very little information. As a result we were not able to strip the beds as requested. Perhaps consider leaving departure info in the house or providing it on arrival. - I couldn’t get the wood burner to draw (and I live in a house where my only heating is a wood burner, so I’m pretty experienced!). It smokes badly when you open the door. I wonder if the chimney could do with a clean? Either way, some instructions would be useful - there are a lot of vents and, even with my experience, it was complicated.

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