Brecon Beacons Welsh Countryside Retreat

Loved everything about this beautiful property. The house is stunning, cosy yet huge and well decorated.

Lots of space to relax, lots of decent-sized bedrooms and a great kitchen. The facilities inside were very good and it was a comfortable place to stay. The beds were pretty good too, as was the wonderful welcome basket.

There was work being done to the outside so we could not use the patio and the shower in the en suite was a little basic.

Large spacious house All the facilities you could require to have a really good comfortable stay Highly recommend

We stayed at Sandbrook Villas for a week and were disappointed. It is described as a “Luxury Model Home” but it is far from it. The overall property does match the photos with a nice open layout but there are a number of serious issues that mean that we cannot recommend this property Our key issues: - Overall Cleanliness - the property throughout was dirty and it had clearly not had a decent clean for a very long time. The bed sheets in the main bedroom had a number of stains on them and there were crumbs in the bed. (See photo of bed sheets.) It was very clear that the sheets had not been changed since the previous occupants! There was a nasty brown stain on one of the sinks. (See photo.) There were ants in the kitchen (see photo of ants under a glass) – do not leave anything sweet on the kitchen island! - General Repairs – we had no working dishwasher for our week-long stay and the dishwasher has clearly had issues for a long time. This is apparent both from previous reviews and that the manager, Colin, said it had been ‘fixed’ 4 or 5 times, but clearly it still does not work. All of the crockery and cutlery in the cupboards were very dirty (see photo of a typically dirty knife) – probably as a result of the broken dishwasher. The lack of a dishwasher, dirty utensils and ants in the kitchen meant we were not comfortable cooking in the kitchen – a key point of renting a home rather than just a room. The en-suite shower leaks resulting in a puddle of water in the kitchen. (See photos of leak and puddle in kitchen.) Again an ongoing problem that Colin was aware of. The toilet seat in the en-suite is broken and there was no hairdryer - although one was supplied when we asked. The property needs some TLC - paint on the windowsills was peeling and some of the bedroom doors were so poorly fitting that they would not close properly.

Our key issues - continuing from above: - Heating – the property is very hot and we soon understood why all the windows were open when we arrived, even though it was not a hot day. Turning the thermostat down to the minimum did not help. Colin informed us that the boiler itself had to be turned up high, else the hot water would stop working! The radiator in the hall is on permanently and cannot be turned off. The main issue is that the boiler is in the master bedroom (see photo) and as the boiler itself generates a lot of heat, it makes that room very hot. It was very difficult to sleep through this heat at night. A choice of hot water or heating throughout the summer is not acceptable - Electrical Safety - the plug for the toaster has been replaced at some time but whoever did this did not screw the plug cover back on. As a result when I touched the plug the cover fell off leaving dangerously exposed live wires! - Shared House/Outside Space (see the photo of property 5A entrance underneath the main property) – it is not made clear in the description that the overall house is split into two separate accommodations – the main rental area which is the ground and upper floor - and a separate basement flat. This means that someone else will be using the gate at the front of the house and will be walking directly past your windows and the outside area is shared. On the Saturday night of our stay, the occupants of the flat had a birthday party in this area and this kept our children awake until late at night. (See the photos of the shared area before and after the party.) Overall, this is clearly not the standard you would expect of a property rented out at this price and marketed as being “luxury”. The fact that most, if not all, of these issues were long standing and previously known about by the owner and property management, makes it even more frustrating.