Cotswolds Holiday Cottages

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Peter - Verified booking

  A wonderful family three days was spent by us at Arlington Mill.

  (There were ten of us). It is an amazing building and is just right for a large family group. There is so much space that everyone was satisfied with their own en suite accommodation. We ate in on two nights, preparing huge banquets in the massive and well-equipped kitchen (two freezers and two fridges!). The Catherine Wheel Inn is a stone's throw up the road and did us proud on one evening. This mill is an amazing place and there is so much to see in the village and surrounding area. It is a delightful part of the Cotswolds. Just one or two minor gripes. When using previous rented accommodation we have usually had a TV set in the bedrooms. Arlington Mill does not, though we were probably too tired to bother, anyway! The TV in the lounge appears only to receive programmes via Sky as Freeview failed to pick up any signal. The soundbar failed to switch on and is very precariously attached to the set. I am familiar with the model and it seemed to be inverted? We tried everything to get it into action, but it seemed dead. We brought DVD's with us for the grandchildren but were unable to use them as the player was not connected to the set and the leads appeared to be missing. The heating system is quite complex and not to be messed with! The timer appeared to be incorrectly set though we were frightened to fiddle with it and left it well alone! In leaving it as it was the heating seemed to come on very late in the evening and hardly at all in the morning when we were getting up. The master bedroom, however, was always warm. As a result, we had to purchase heaps of logs and used the very efficient log burner to heat the dinning and associated lounge area where we spent most of our time. These are only minor gripes about a holiday let which is second to none. It certainly has the 'wow factor' and is well worth the money. Congratulations to the owners who have done a great restoration job on what is a wonderful old building of some significance.

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• Sofie - Verified booking

  Wouldn't visit again.

  The property is ok-ish. It was spacious and had enough kitchen equipment. But, as other reviews mention, it needs some basic fixes. * There are no instructions present. You're left on your own to figure out how everything works. * We had to figure out ourselves that there is a hidden switch in the closet behind the shower that turns on the pump at the bottom of that closet. Without switching it on, there's barely water coming out of the shower. * The heating was off on arrival and due to the rainy weather it was getting cold inside. It took some time to figure out where the heating was and how to turn it on (switch with a red light beside it in the kitchen) * We received an email while we were there to turn of the light on the parking because it was burning all week. It turned out we inadvertently turned it on by switching on a switch in the closet behind the shower while searching how to get the water running. * The twin beds are missing slats. This was noted in other reviews but they are still missing. * The curtain in the bedroom with the twin beds don't darken the room at all. Our kids couldn't sleep because of that. We eventually had to put blankets in front of the window. * The curtain in the main bedroom is old and worn. The sides curl, giving the same issue as the twin bedroom. * There is no vacuum cleaner or other cleaning equipment available. Only a broken broom and dustpan. Cleaning up dirty shoe prints, spilled food, etc when going on holiday with kids is nearly impossible. * There's a sign saying paper and cardboard go in a white bag. But there wasn't any white bag to be seen. Hence no sorting possible.

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• 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

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• Dan - Verified booking

  We saw a lot of negative reviews about the house after we had booked and were concerned about staying there however the house was large, clean and bright upon arrival.

  The road outside did not disturb us at all for the whole stay. The building itself is beautiful! The house needs a lick of paint here and there as there are areas where the paint does not match. The WiFi is next to none existent with a download speed of 0.15mbps and needs improved as this is worse than dial up however we did manage to use our own 4g on the phones during the stay. The bathroom needs a new carpet or rug to cover up the melted mark by the bath and maybe a new shower screen seal. In the second bedroom one of the beds has a broken slat. Luckily there were only 3 of us staying so this did not impact us but would affect a party of four. We loved the fact there was wood left for the open fire, me and the boy loved playing in the yard and the care package consisting of biscuits etc in the kitchen was a lovely touch thank you. The house was warm but not too hot which again was perfect and the location of the cottage was brilliant with good easy access to the local town stow and other attractions. I would suggest a welcome leaflet would be helpful to some explaining how to use the boiler and immersion heater, and perhaps some suggestions of what is good in the area to do. We could also not find the container for plastic recycling? We had a lovely stay at the cottage and would recommend to others. It is a proper small slice of rural life and it wasn't exactly difficult figuring out how to work the hot water and heating system. It's worth a stay.

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• Mark - Verified booking

  It’s difficult to summarise how badly this place works.

  Arrival and details were fine, tea was provided but, inexplicably, no coffee and this was indicative of a series of baffling decisions by the owners. There was no welcome manual so we were without hot water for a day until the agents suggested something we could try (which worked). The kitchen is appallingly thought out, the hob has no extractor fan and half of the pans provided are not suitable for an induction hob, the oven needs a clean as it sets off the smoke alarm every time the door is opened. There is a washer and a dryer and a dishwasher but, inexplicably, no freezer meaning food we bought in advance went to waste. Elsewhere side tables are not wipe clean and some look like school GCSE projects where others are repurposed (a Fortnum and Mason hamper may look classy but wineglasses don’t sit comfortably on it. Draws are loose, the bathroom door sticks badly, the double bed is too small, a selection of the owners niche cd collection sits in the children’s bedroom taking up space and adding no value, electrical items are daisy chained on extension leads all over the place. I could go on. It’s the kind of place where you tolerate the flaws because your friends leant it to you and it’s free. This wasn’t. To cap it all on our penultimate day an interior designer and builder, commissioned by the owners, arrived to look round and quote. We weren’t told about this and it absolutely confirmed our decision to leave early.

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