Cottages That Sleep 12 in the UK

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Nik - Verified booking

  We have just come back from our four-night stay at Maes Elwy and would like to tell you about our underwhelming experience.

  Below are some key points that we raised to the owner whilst we were there. Lack of towels: Upon arrival and after allocating rooms to each other we realised that there were not enough towels for our group. The booking was for 20 people and we had enough towels for approximately 10 people. We called the owner Lynn to notify her, and she replied that there wasn’t much she could do because the previous group stole them. That as a response was frustrating because she knew that there were not enough for our group and still did not get additional towels beforehand. Lynn said she could try and bring some the following day but that didn’t help as people were looking to shower that day after a 5.5 hour drive and also some of the group were climbing Snowdon very early the next morning and wanted to freshen up before that. A few hours later Lynn’s husband did bring some additional towels but informed us that some of them had holes in them! This was again very poor from a hosts perspective as first we had to chase them for missing towels (that they knew were missing and then brought some with holes in them). Dirty Cutlery and utensils: We were getting ready for food and when we opened the cutlery drawers we saw lots of dead flies in there. The cutlery was also really filthy (we have a photo to show this). We again messaged Lynn to inform her of this and her response was again not very helpful. We have screenshots of the messages and responses. We ended up having to clean all of the cutlery and plates etc and never put them back in the drawers/cupboards after being washed. We kept the cutlery in our own container on the dining table and left the plates and mugs all piled up for the duration of our stay. This way we knew they were clean. As you can imagine this was not a great way for us to stary our holiday. Lynn never responded to our messages with regards to us having to re-wash everything before we could use anything. Mouse: On Saturday someone spotted a mouse in the large sitting room. Someone else spotted one (might have been the same one or another), a short while later in the same room. We were horrified to see this as we have never stayed anywhere with mice before. We were too slow to take a picture but did inform Lynn of this. She said she could send a pest controller round, but we didn’t want that due to having small kids with us. She also said it was a woodlands area, so mice could appear! This was not helpful to say the least! We never used the large sitting room again and kept the door closed permanently to make sure the mouse/mice didn’t get out of the room and into other areas. We also never left any of our belongings on the floor at all. BBQ: On the property description it mentions a bbq. We had taken lots of food to cook on the bbq but upon looking in the garden we spotted that there was a very small rusty old bbq that we couldn’t really use. We looked around thinking that there was another one somewhere but there was not. We ended up having to buy disposable bbq’s to use instead. This was again a very big inconvenience as we were expecting a fully working bbq in good condition that we could use. Lynn did give us some cash to make up for having to purchase disposable bbq’s. General cleanliness: We found the generally cleanliness of the property a lot to be desired. There were cobwebs everywhere (inside and outside) and it looked as though the property had not been cleaned for quite some time. The irony of this is that we were not allowed to have a late check out after being told that it takes a long time to thoroughly clean a property of that size. I hope the next group got this type of cleaning as we did not. One of the en-suites had nail clipping in it (we have a photo that was sent to Lynn). There were dead flies, dead wasps/bees all over the place, not to mention the mouse/mice. To summarise, we were really looking forward to the break as a large group but unfortunately the items mentioned above really put a dampener on things and ruined what was meant to be a lovely family getaway. The responses from the owner (via text, on the phone and in person) were not helpful in the slightest and not what we expected from the owner. Despite coming to see us on Sunday the owner did not apologise once for any of the things that we raised. We paid a lot of money for this booking and did not get what we paid for. From the moment we walked in and saw the dirty state of the property, things went downhill. I understand that you are not responsible for the property itself but if this is the type of property that you have on your books, we would think twice before booking again. The current times mean that deep cleaning is a MUST and it seems as though no one had bothered to clean this place at all, let alone a deep clean. We have had a few staycations this year and have never had an issue with the cleanliness of the accommodation as all have had deep cleans beforehand. The Owner Lynn did ask us how much compensation we would like when she saw us on Sunday and asked us to liaise with you. I look forward to your swift response. Regards, Nikhil

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• Ruth - Verified booking

  This is a great property, but there are a number of things that stopped this stay being the amazing story it should have been.

  Downstairs the facilities were fantastic. The large kitchen was well stocked with crockery, cutlery and utensils for our large group. The large lounge and dining conservatory were two of the main reasons for choosing the property as we wanted to be able to eat meals and socialise all together. We also loved the bar area and the table tennis table - wish we'd know about this in advance as we would have brought bats! When we arrived the house was freezing with no instructions on how to operate the heating and we had to contact the owners, via Sykes (the Sykes employee was very helpful and sorted our issue quickly), who said it was due to an employee not being able to get to the house to turn it before we arrived. The sleeping areas were disappointing. We chose the property as it had a large number of bedrooms to accomodate our party and we looked at the layout of bedrooms in the listing and pre-planned our stay accordingly. We needed 11 rooms to adequately accomodate the numbers and needs of our party. We particularly liked the advertised and pictured 'Pull out trundle bed' in room 13 which was next to a double room. This was perfect for a toddler and parents in our group. However, on arrival we found the 2nd floor locked and inaccessible which meant we only had access to 10 bedrooms. We had to re-configure our sleeping plans and some people who had expected a single room had to share. The owner was unwilling to open the upper floor for us as she claimed there were enough beds for 17, which while technically true it is not as the house was advertised. Two of the rooms on the first floor are bunk bedded rooms. Our party was mainly adult couples and single adults, none of whom were expecting to be in bunk beds. The trundle bed was on the 2nd floor so we ended up with a toddler in a bunk bed room, which was far from desirable. If rooms will be inaccessible this should be made clear in the listing. As the weekend went on it also transpired that one side of the house, approximately 4 bedrooms, had no hot water and the advertised bath also had no hot water. One room was also extremely noisy and the occupants of that room also chose to go and share another room rather than cope with the noise which appeared to come from the plumbing. With the top floor inaccessible, there were no other options available to us. Additionally, one of our party is disabled, but can manage steps with assitance and sticks. Most of the staircases had a banister and our family member could climb them unassisted, but the small staircase to the 'accessible room and bathroom' did not have a handrail, so our family member was trapped in their room until they could be assisted. Some of the electric points in the bedrooms were also unreliable and needed to be 'hit' regularly during use as table lights kept flickering. Many of the electric light switches seemed to be in odd places. Some other more minor points - the fridge in the bar area was very, very noisy. The fridge in the kitchen had an unreliable seal which we had to constantly fix. Several of the double glazed windows didn't shut properly. If they closed at the bottom they had a gap at the top. Several rooms seemed to have sheets that were too small for the beds and constantly pinged off at the corners through the night. Overall we enjoyed our stay and the house is a great property with great facilities. It was disappointing that as well as not having access to all the bedrooms and the plumbing issues, lots of things which could probably be easily remedied detracted from this being a 5 star holiday.

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• Tanya - Verified booking

  Positives- Location was good.

  The house was very spacious. The function room and bar area were great & was great for my 30th birthday celebration. Negatives- when we arrived there were 2 rooms that were freezing and the water coming out of those taps were freezing, including the bathroom. Baring in mind we are in December. To have no heating and rooms being cold to the point you could see your own breath? That’s not really acceptable. We tried to contact the owner on several occasions, but we’re unable to get through. Due to arriving Friday night, I had to call the syke out of hours number. I must say the woman was really nice and helpful. She even tried contacting the owner and an alternative number and failed getting through. So I had no option but to buy portable heaters for those rooms. The issue did eventually get resolved a whole day later when the owner got back to me and luckily I got my refund for the heaters I had to purchase. But it was just the inconvenience. Advice & Room for improvement- The facilities on the kitchen are not the best as far as self catering house goes. Especially for a house that houses 29 people. Thankfully we had a caterer provide our food for Saturday when the main celebration occurred (otherwise feeding 29 adults would have been traumatic). Stupidly decided to make a roast dinner on Sunday which was a nightmare and took forever due to the lack of equipment. The kitchen could do with being knocked down and adding more cabinets with equipment and making it a more open space. If you are a group that don’t usually cook your food from scratch then You’l be fine. The house has so much potential, but it’s very old and obvious in some of the en suits. Some of the bathrooms are nicely decorated, but the others are just old and starting to fall apart. Very cheap material was used. The carpet in the bathrooms starts to stink after a few showers. I hope the house gets fully renovated, as we would return if that was the case, but currently wouldn’t really recommend. It made a lot of sense why the house was discounted when we booked. I would advise for people to bring their own towels. They appeared washed but were stained. None of us had ever experienced that. Also for a long weekend, it would be nice to have more clean & unstained towels. The owner does eventually reply, but takes a while. So if you questions before your stay, you have to be very patient. If would be nice if the owner was more responsive and kept their phone on when guests are staying or at least provide an alternative number to call if there are any issues.

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• Delyth - Verified booking

  We booked the house for a family and friends celebration over a weekend.

  On arrival the whole house was freezing, and it took some time to get the heating on and a whole day for people to feel comfortable; lucky we had taken some extra blankets with us. It was very disappointing and stressful that we had to go around cleaning, especially the toilets and kitchen before we could start to enjoy our break. We really wanted to brush, mop and hoover some areas, however there was no cleaning equipment available. Luckily on the first evening we had hired outside caterers which was a godsend as preparing the house for the main arrival of guests took us until 6.30. Towards the end of the evening the caterers found out we had no hot water (our cleaning had been carried out using antibacterial wipes) As it was late, we tried to call the Skyes office several times but in the end, we had to leave a message. The following morning, I contacted Skyes again and the owner. Our main issues at this point were sorted by lunch time. We did find out from the owner that the lack of hot water was due to her switching it off during the previous week and had forgotten to switch it back on ( we are now wondering why the cleaner didn’t spot this when she was in that morning). The hot water took until late afternoon to be at an acceptable temperature which did make our afternoon tea a little harder to deal with; the china we were using could not be put in a dishwasher. Other negatives during the weekend; Some rooms smelt damp , Dangerous step in the kitchen area that we kept tripping on, Lack of kitchen equipment and matching crockery , Stained towels , Lack of towels in the main toilets and bathrooms (advised to take your own) By the Sunday morning both taps in the kitchen leaked if you did not hold them down at the joint area. This property would be ideal for large bookings if the issues could be resolved as the house and location is beautiful

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• Valerie - Verified booking

  I have booked large houses for 20 plus people for the last 5 years in Wales, and Cumbria, so I seen Marine house and it sounded perfect with a perfect location.

  And I wasn't disappointed on first look it was good for parking the drive fitted 2 cars on and across rd was plenty of spaces to park more cars if needed in the pay and display. The property was over 5 floors and it was spotlessly clean, it was very well equipped in fact the best I've ever had over the years the bedrooms most with on suites was nicely decorated and the beds had crisp clean bedding on and was all comfortable. There was towels in each bedroom also white and clean. The lounge was a nice size and 3 couches was clean and no stains. We enjoyed the Hot tub outside and there was plenty of bence tables outside too. We was a 5 minute walk from everything, shops food and the Beach. The kitchen was perfectly equipped. The only negative I had is despite hot tub/garden rules stating only plastic cups outside there was None in the property, other than that and No pizza cutter, there was absolutely everything else you needed and all in good condition. I wanted to take the Range oven home lol. WiFi was very good. I would personally have liked more twin beds rather than doubles. I would absolutely use this property again, and recommend it to others.

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