Villas In Oxford

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Chloe - Verified booking

  The most disappointing stay that we’ve ever had.

  The Granary is advertised online with beautiful shots of the exterior, but prospective guests should be mindful of the fact that they can only view it from one aspect (not the aspect shown in the advertising photos online) as (understandably) one side of The Granary is inaccessible as it sits behind a gate to the owner’s home (no issue there) but when my fiancé “dared” to stand next to another side of The Granary, he was rudely told that he wasn’t allowed to stand there, by what was presumably a member of the family who own the farmhouse, Granary etc. Such a lot of emphasis is put on the outside space available to guests in the listing details, but the moment that my fiancé was stood there to admire The Granary, he was immediately told he wasn’t allowed (he was not stood behind any gate or sign-posted area that indicated it was for use of the owners only). Another family who were staying in the adjoining Cart Shed whilst we were staying at The Granary told us that they had felt uncomfortable during their entire stay, as they had felt members of family that owned the farmhouse & holiday lets were “keeping an eye on them” whilst they spent time in the allocated outside spaces detailed in the listing. Some things that I would improve if I owned this property: - the shower is basic at best. The water pressure is low and uneven - at check-in there were many areas of The Granary that clearly hadn’t been cleaned or wiped down prior to our arrival - the fixed pane windows are likely a huge selling point for many guests when considering this venue, but guests are greeted to views of untidy bins, broken plant pots, what appear to be empty buckets of materials/products & bikes from the farmhouse out of the fixed pane windows. We had hoped to have and capture beautiful countryside views from these windows, but the surrounding area was untidy as noted above and far from picturesque - guests of this “luxury” guest house are charged for fire wood. A first of anywhere we’ve stayed previously All in all, you couldn’t pay us to stay here again. There are much better holiday lets in the surrounding areas and I would urge anyone considering staying at The Granary to think again.

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• Jenny - Verified booking

  Your description of a bathroom ‘ideally’ situated on the ground floor is , of course, estate agent speak , because in almost no ones world is it ideally situated.

  We knew on booking that it was ground floor which we dislike but this was a compromise . We did not anticipate that it was accessed through a conservatory , glass all round, & that the join between conservatory ( sorry, ‘dining room’ in your world) & lounge involved a 2” lip up follow by 4” drop down . This is important when in the latter case , you are getting up in the night to go to the toilet , & in the former , wanting to get washed in the morning. Bear in mind there is a public footpath in full view a few yards away. The shower was unsuited to a holiday let because it is fixed height ( for someone very tall) so with no shower caps , difficult to avoid getting hair wet. The kitchen has a tiled work surface with grouting , so impossible to keep clean . The double bedroom , not photographed I notice, is the smaller less attractive one.Why? We worked out it would be perfectly a possible to fit the two somewhat chunky single beds in the smaller room & allow couples to enjoy the extra room , wardrobes & pretty fireplace. Anyone, seeing an assurance that there is parking on street would assume this was a sreet you could see. You can’t. I felt misled in this respect. We had to cart suitcases some distance & cross a busy A road with them. The cottage heating was on day & night which we are not used to & because it was way too hot especially when cooking , my husband reduced the temperature. I felt the visitors handbook was halfhearted. No decent instructions for getting the tv started , & again , different to ours. A quick comprehensive guide to putting the heating on timer would have helped. Issues in the visitor book about positioning of the tv have not been addressed. You have to move both settees for two people to see the whole screen. Anyway , not my most successful choice of accommodation you can see. A good job the walks , Blenheim , Oxford , & RSPB reserve which we found , delivered completely in the holiday experience.

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• Robert - Verified booking

  The Old Stable is well presented and a wonderfully equipped holiday home.

  Everything has been provided to an extremely high standard. Despite dire weather predictions our stay was not interupted by the sound of raindrops. All good so far. This is very much a working farm and as such the sound of tractors working from 7am should not be unexpected. Another aspect worthy of note during spells of warm weather was the abundance of flies......again not unusual on a farm but preparing food is not a task for sharing with our six-legged friends. A country property was chosen for walks and enjoying the outdoors. It is not feasible to walk from the door, therefore the car is required every day . . . . Herein lies my final gripe..The A40 is a busy road and joining it is a nightmare. Forget trying to turn right because a sufficient gap is as likely as a fly swatter having a success rate capable of deterring the other house guests. Engage power setting, turn left and trust other road users are taking notice. Walking the 1.3 miles to the nearest pub was possible but conversation, bar shouting, has to be conduced during breaks in the traffic. Our stay was enjoyable and the area is full of beautiful destinations - honourable mention to the warm sausage rolls from the butcher in Burford. These and his own pork pies are not to be missed. There is little the attentive owners can do about any of this and as such my comments are aimed purely at the expectations of prospective holiday makers. Nature has her own way of retribution - on our return home our south facing windows had their share of uninvited flies!!!!

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• Lynn - Verified booking

  The Causeway is in an excellent location next to Blenheim Palace and easy 5 minute walk into lovely Woodstock.

  Comfortable stay in a nicely decorated, well equipped ,clean cottage. The garden is very secure for your dog. Walks to be had in the Blenheim estate and across the road there is a 7 mile circular walk to Wootton.(access next to the Black Prince pub).Everything was fine except for the shower pressure which is poor and the television stand is far to low. These issues can be fixed though.Parking may be an issue in the busy holiday times of the year. There is some road noise. Never the less, I consider myself to be a light sleeper and was not awoken by road noise. There are secondary internal windows which helps muffle any noise. Milk,bread,jam,cheese,tea, coffee,sugar and chocolate biscuits were supplied. However,there was no starter pack for the wood burner left for us on our arrival as per description. When we contacted the owner she said she had asked Sykes to remove this from the description. However, it was delivered to us the next day by the housekeeper.I do not think it is a good idea to remove this as it took us 6 hours to travel to Woodstock and then we had to go back out again to look for somewhere that sells wood . All in all had a great stay and highly recommend this cottage.

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• Simon - Verified booking

  We had a wonderful time at the cottage and in Woodstock, perfect location for the park.

  Cottage was really well equipped and had everything we needed. Parking is a bit of an issue as not guaranteed and we knew this when booking, but we found a space as advised on the lane opposite which was fine for us and a couple of minutes walk - as long as you are prepared then its fine. There are a handful of spaces just along from the cottages but not readily available as residents park there, but we got a space on the last day which was really handy for loading up the car. We could not park on the first day there so had to do a few trips to unload but not an issue for us. The bathroom does need more lighting, only one small light over the sink - there are 2 light fittings in the ceiling but bulbs removed, I would suggest replacing the lights or put something else in its place to give more light. We added on the extra day to our holiday so 8 days, and we thoroughly enjoyed. We had our dog with us and we found The Kings Arms just up the hill really dog friendly and welcoming. Look forward to re-visiting again in the future.

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