School Holidays 2017 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.

  Read more less >

• 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

  Read more less >

• Amanda - Verified booking

  Your General Feedback Would you like to provide feedback about the holiday property?

  This will be shared with the property owner. Beautifully appointed and recent updates have obviously been done with a lot of thought to presentation and style (updated photos on the site would be helpful!) by the owners. Great location in heart of Stow with easy walk to shops, pubs and restaurants and all key sites in the Cotswolds within 30 mins drive. Use of church car park good addition as road outside the cottage busy during working hours. Cottage was immaculately clean, piping hot water at all times (we were there in a heatwave so can’t vouch for the heating!) good provision of basics and the wine and shortbread a nice welcoming touch. So, what’s the catch?? This is a typical Cotswolds cottage and the major drawback is that the cottage is absolutely tiny with room sizes and ceiling heights to match. My husband and I stayed for a week so the lack of decent wardrobe space or drawers was a problem. As a result would recommend 3 adults max. and only a couple if you want to spend your break in some comfort. The staircase was borderline dangerous (steep and slippy) and this should have been highlighted on the listing to help those with mobility issues. Couple of maintenance requirements - missing bottle shelf in fridge, shower head in en suite needs descaling/replacing and outdoor furniture needs to be cleaned to same standard as inside. I feel sad writing all that but the lack of comfort did take the edge off a lovely week’s stay.

  Read more less >

• Jayne - Verified booking

  A wonderful home from home.

  Fabulous quirky tardis of a Cotswold cottage with literally everything provided. Our favourite room was the sun room with the day bed, such a brilliant idea. Beds super comfy (we loved the bedroom curtains too!) and surprisingly quiet even tho it’s on the main street and the town clock chimes every hour which we soon got used to. Parking was easy further down the street (time restricted in the white boxes) and so many quality eateries literally on the doorstep. Just a couple of things I think the listing should be clearer about-two sets of steep, windy but fairly short stairs to bedrooms, my parents are both 80 and were v grateful for the downstairs bathroom, and the outside area is literally postage stamp sized, not suitable for doggy ‘exercise’ but neither points really detracted from our week there. We also hid a few of the strong smelling diffusers as I don’t like them around dogs, but other than that, we absolutely recommend Benfield! Thank you Lindy for your beautiful home.

  Read more less >

• Robert - Verified booking

  Really lovely, character property.

  Fantastic location, easy walking distance to all the shops and eateries in town, and just a few minutes drive to loads of days out and other pretty towns. Benfield has everything you need for a home from home experience, the kitchen is properly kitted out etc. It’s worth checking how to use an Aga if you’re likely to cook. Also the Aga makes the house quite warm. We took our 7 year old and crawling 1 year old, it was fine but it’s not small child friendly unless you are very careful as with the age of the property the floors are hard and uneven, the stairs are narrow and steep, and there’s quite a lot of furniture etc they can reach and potentially break. We were quite lucky the little one hadn’t started walking! The parking is fine, you pull up outside for loading and there’s lots of onstreet parking, even on the Bank Holiday. The management company were really helpful when we had a small issue and came that day to sort it.

  Read more less >