Villas In Church Stretton

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Graham - Verified booking

  Had a good stay at Orchard cottage for 60th birthday celebrations for someone who loves a hot tub.

  On first impression the the property looked good. However once settled we noticed grease stain on the oven door, dirty inside windows, carpets and furniture tired and stained. (broken dining chair, in need of attention) We found a babies dummy between the furniture in the living room and dust and hair under the roll top bath, we just feel a little more care needs to be taken between guests. Considering the times we have just been through we assumed this would of been a top priority. On booking this property we had read previous reviews that had stated lack of toilet rolls and kitchen equipment for larger parties and assumed these would of been rectified but unfortunately this wasn't the case. Orchard cottage was chosen for two reasons it was dog friendly (only in the kitchen) and it had a hot tub, our main priority! We were only able to use the hot tub on the first night but found it was rather cool, we assumed this was due to service between guests. Unfortunately the hot tub didn't heat up the following day (sunday), we contacted the owner who asked "why do we think this is?" which I found to be rather an odd question considering I was clearly calling for some support to get the hot tub back up and running. The owner communicated she was out and would get her husband to have a look. We returned to the property to find the hot tub not working and no communication as to what was happening. After chasing the owner she replied on Monday to say someone would be out on Tuesday to look at the hot tub. The engineer arrived promptly on the Tuesday morning (the last day for most of our party) he replaced a couple of parts and explained he didn't hold out much hope of it working due to lack of maintenance by the owners. We were very disappointed to hear this and once again questioned the hygiene of this property. We were offered £40 compensation which we found an insult as we could of booked elsewhere for £100 less without a hot tub. We eventually received £50 refund and £10 as a good gesture from Sykes. We appreciate hot tubs can fail and are more than understanding, but the lack of interest and communication from the owner we found disappointing. Especially as they ask for £125 good housekeeping bond should we damage anything, seems rather unfair. We hope the next guest had a better experience than us and weren't hoping for a working hot tub on arrival!

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• Adrian - Verified booking

  Due to an unfortunate misunderstanding between the owner and the cleaner, the oil central heating boiler and controls were off when we arrived, the property temperature was about 5c.

  We quickly sorted that out, although there was no 'welcome book/instructions for the cottage' and no user instructions for the boiler. However, copious wood is provided by the owner Kath for the open fire, and as the central heating and the wood fire got going, the house temperature had climbed to 10c by bedtime (it's a lovely large cottage!)... but then the weather had other ideas - Storm Arwen hit and we lost power and water for several hours and the central heating went off during the night, so when woke, the house was unfortunately very cold again. The wood fire helped - but it only heats one room. Kath's own property - the farm opposite suffered heavy damage (roof off) from the cow shed, but despite this she made sure that plenty of wood supplies kept coming for us to stock up and she kept us informed of developments with the restoration of water and power, which was thankfully working later that day - and the central heating boiler again started to get the house to a comfortable temperature. By the end of our 2nd day, as we were approaching the 3rd night of our week's break the cottage temperature had climbed to 17c. The cottage as we have mentioned is large, surrounded by open countryside and has a bathroom with a separate shower and a downstairs shower room as well, the kitchen and utility room are very well equipped and the only white good that might be missing for those who may need it is a tumble dryer - however, we did not need one - we easily dried or washed clothes on the radiators. The hot tub is great - it's sheltered from the weather on 2 sides and has a roof canopy as well - its situation right by the side of the house, accessed through double doors is GREAT. There is a dairy only 200m away - you can buy wonderful fresh milk, cheeses etc from a self serve machine. Will we go back? ABSOLUTELY. Do we recommend the cottage as a place for 2 or 6 people to have a wonderful countryside break with provisions and shops all within a 10 minute drive? YES. We had a great stay - thank you.

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• George - Verified booking

  It was a lovely property, very comfortable and inviting.

  The facilities were great and had everything we could have needed, didn’t end up using half of the utility things we brought like cloths and cleaning sprays. The oven could have done with a clean as whoever used it last had some overspill that was baked to the bottom and burnt when we used it causing a lot of smoke, had to cook with the extractor on full and doors and windows open. Also the oven didn’t cook things fast and could do with a new one. The extra game facilities were very fun and well equipped, we would have liked some outdoor lighting as we visited during the winter months and getting to the other buildings we had to use torches to avoid tripping on the cobbles and manoeuvering cars in that dark was extremely difficult. Our main concern with this property would be the roads on approach as they were single lane and not in great condition, we took to going very slowly as some of the bumps and pot holes were causing our cars to bottom out if we were not careful and on the way back we did have a car die and are not sure if the brutal roads contributed to that however there issues were not the fault of the house just a little warning to others. In summary though we had a wonderful time and would consider visiting again.

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• Sally - Verified booking

  This place doesn't allow dogs, it tolerates dogs.

  When we arrived, we were greeted with laminated signs which said that dogs were only allowed in the kitchen and utility room. If that had been in the original listing, we would never have booked! I think it's crazy to think that people who would take their dog on holiday would expect to lock it in a room away from them the entire time or have to sit in the kitchen diner to keep it company. Excluding that, the house is really spacious, the hot tub is wonderful and the gardens a joy for the dog to play in. There's definitely no frills, half a roll of toilet roil, very little in the way of cleaning products such as dishwasher tablets or cooking essentials like oil, salt, pepper etc which I think you would expect to be provided for a three night stay. Little things like no bath mats etc are really frustrating. I think, it would be perfect if we return on a holiday with friends (without the pooch), unless they changed the policy as the layout is great for entertaining. Owners were great if you contact them, we had an issue with the shower and one of the owners came over straight away. Overall, a great place but with some hidden drawbacks, not made clear in the listing.

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• Heather - Verified booking

  We have just returned from a brilliant family holiday at Turnip House.

  The cottage itself was lovely and spacious, but also very cosy and comfortable; we loved the combination of the traditional features together with all mod cons. It was spotlessly clean when we arrived and the homemade cakes and fresh flowers were a lovely touch. It was an ideal base for a family holiday, as the children had so much do on the farm itself; they were very excited to feed the pigs and collect eggs from the chickens; they played on the go carts and sandpit and loved all the space to run around. There's loads of land to explore, including a lovely 2 mile circular walk with waterside picnic area and lovely views. The owner Sara was really helpful in suggesting local things to do and on hand to deal with any requests. We had a couple of sessions at the swimming pool, which was stunning, and Sara even organised a local therapist to do hot stone massages for my husband and I in the spa area which was out of this world! We really couldn't fault the place and would love to go back again. Thanks Sara for making our stay so lovely

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