Stay House - Rural Retreat

All of the beds are comfortable. The bedding and towels were very clean. Nice big central space and dining table. Good cooker. There was loads of room for our group to be able to escape from each other, and good tvs in all rooms. Reasonable Wi-Fi. The garden is big and dog friendly, useful outside furniture. Very useful large porch for boots and bikes ( too hilly to cycle far unless you are very fit!) Saw a stoat, and a hedgehog was a regular visitor. Really enjoyed the sounds of the working farm. Lovely countryside, lovely towns nearby.

The property is a bit tired, and generally not very clean, except the beds which were good. Only a few windows open, most are painted shut. The crockery and cutlery is plentiful, but not good quality and doesn’t match. I had to clean the dining table and much of the crockery before I could use it-the kitchen would be much improved by the addition of a couple of hand towels and oven gloves, a pan scrubber, decent tablets for the dishwasher-previous occupants had tried to clean the pans, but the tools aren’t there to do a good job. The access is along a farm track with a cattle grid. OK for our pick up truck, but my son in law had to go very carefully on his low profile tyres. There is no accessible bathroom, and no grab rails in the shower, my old dad couldn’t use the bathroom (there is a ground floor toilet)

Great for the family reuniion

Equipment, plates cultley, glasses very old and basic. No salt and pepper oils etc

The location, size of the property, peacefulness and interior were perfect for our whole family including the dog. Set on a cow farm too which our grandson loved. We would happily revisit. Perfect for a family get together, lots of outdoor space to play and chill with stunning scenery. We never saw a soul, idyllic!

Nothing really, but take extra outdoor camp chairs as not enough for all 12 of us.

Lovely rural setting, despite being next to a farm it was quiet and really peaceful, with great views. The house was really big and more than enough to accommodate our family of 10, with a big table and plenty of seating.

The house really needs a good clean, there were a lot of stains on most carpets, cobwebs far above what you’d expect even for a rural property, there were left over jackets, socks and even a baby’s dummy, which made it feel like it had not been cleaned properly. It just feels a little tired and needs a refresh, as the whole finish to the house looks rushed and practically just covered in white paint with no care, to make it fit to rent out. We had an issue with the boiler which meant the heating wouldn’t work for the first 2 nights until it was fixed. Appreciate that we’ve recently had a heat wave so the boiler probably had not been used, but things like that should be checked prior to guests using the house, especially as the boiler was flashing with the error. Also, there were 2 wasp nests on the outside of the house, which prevented the kids from being able to enjoy the garden without concern. One of the nests was in the roof of the the little nook downstairs which meant there were at least 10-12 live wasps in that room, and dead ones dotted around. We had to just close that room off completely, which is a shame as it was a lovely little room. I reported this on the first day but unfortunately it wasn’t fixed.