Lodges & Log Cabins in West Midlands

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Mark - Verified booking

  My wife and I visited for a three day break in February 2024.

  The setting is idyllic, over-looking the water, with lots of wildlife to watch (we even saw an otter!). Willow is one of three identical cabins around the same water, but they are well spaced out. In drafting this review I re-visited the website and realised that the photos showing the exterior of the cabin are not (at the time of writing) actually of Willow – the hot tub is further away from the main cabin at Willow. Anyway. the cabin is very cosy, and with the fire going it is beautifully warm and romantic. Everything is still fairly new, clean, tidy and unblemished. I liaised by message with Elinor, and she was very responsive, including in dealing with some of the points below. My wife and I are seasoned self-catering UK holiday makers, and I always recommend to hosts that they live in a property for a while (ie several days) to experience the property as a guest would. I suspect Elinor may not have done so, as there are little things that could be done to make a stay even more comfortable. For example, more hooks on the walls/doors for coats/hangers, providing washing up gloves and a bowl, providing kitchen roll, kitchen foil, etc etc. Nothing earth shattering, but just little things you notice are absent when living there for a few days. I can think only of two ‘gripes’, which are worth mentioning. Although the listing made reference to ‘electric heaters’ (plural), there was only one (until Elinor provided us with a second, upon my request). The heater is a portable oil filled electric heater, which you have to wheel between the bedroom and main living space. It is not programmable, and takes quite some time to heat up. The log burner really does blast out the heat, but that doesn’t help when you first get up, and the main living space is really rather cold. A couple of hardwired, controllable (ie with timers) wall mounted electric heaters (one for the bedroom, one for the main room) would do the job nicely. Secondly, the listing describes a “King-sized bedroom”. Obviously there’s no such thing, so we took this as short-hand for “bedroom with a king-size bed”. The bed was certainly very comfy, but it’s definitely a 4’6” Double, and not a 5’ king size. I realise that any criticism, even when it’s constructive, can be viewed negatively. This isn’t my intention. We had a lovely time, and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Willow for a cosy romantic getaway. Just remember to take your own washing up gloves!

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• Mark - Verified booking

  My wife and I visited for a three day break in February 2024.

  The setting is idyllic, over-looking the water, with lots of wildlife to watch (we even saw an otter!). Willow is one of three identical cabins around the same water, but they are well spaced out. In drafting this review I re-visited the website and realised that the photos showing the exterior of the cabin are not (at the time of writing) actually of Willow – the hot tub is further away from the main cabin at Willow. Anyway. the cabin is very cosy, and with the fire going it is beautifully warm and romantic. Everything is still fairly new, clean, tidy and unblemished. I liaised by message with Elinor, and she was very responsive, including in dealing with some of the points below. My wife and I are seasoned self-catering UK holiday makers, and I always recommend to hosts that they live in a property for a while (ie several days) to experience the property as a guest would. I suspect Elinor may not have done so, as there are little things that could be done to make a stay even more comfortable. For example, more hooks on the walls/doors for coats/hangers, providing washing up gloves and a bowl, providing kitchen roll, kitchen foil, etc etc. Nothing earth shattering, but just little things you notice are absent when living there for a few days. I can think only of two ‘gripes’, which are worth mentioning. Although the listing made reference to ‘electric heaters’ (plural), there was only one (until Elinor provided us with a second, upon my request). The heater is a portable oil filled electric heater, which you have to wheel between the bedroom and main living space. It is not programmable, and takes quite some time to heat up. The log burner really does blast out the heat, but that doesn’t help when you first get up, and the main living space is really rather cold. A couple of hardwired, controllable (ie with timers) wall mounted electric heaters (one for the bedroom, one for the main room) would do the job nicely. Secondly, the listing describes a “King-sized bedroom”. Obviously there’s no such thing, so we took this as short-hand for “bedroom with a king-size bed”. The bed was certainly very comfy, but it’s definitely a 4’6” Double, and not a 5’ king size. I realise that any criticism, even when it’s constructive, can be viewed negatively. This isn’t my intention. We had a lovely time, and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Willow for a cosy romantic getaway. Just remember to take your own washing up gloves!

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• David - Verified booking

  Just back from a 4 night stay between Christmas and New Year staying in Pod 2.

  Arrived on Monday (Boxing Day) to a welcome pack of a luxury hamper including pate, crackers, jam, Christmas crackers and a bottle of Prosecco thank you! Access was easy via the key box located outside by the bbq and the pod was immaculately clean and tidy and decorated to a modern high standard. Listed to sleep 6 but a small family of four would realistically be the max especially in winter when confined more to the pod which is well designed to maximise the space. Everything we needed was to hand along with basic necessities such as tea, coffee, sugar and condiments etc. one slight gripe is that my wife found the mattress quite hard although I found it ok. We had two small dogs with us and found everything more than adequate for our stay as we spent much of our time out walking and taking in the stunning scenery close to the accommodation. There is another small pod next door and a cottage close by at the end of the drive but otherwise is quiet other than the occasional barking from the dogs up the road. The other pod was not occupied for most of our stay. Word of warning that this accommodation is fairly remote with the nearest supermarket (COOP) 6 miles away and although the pub is within walking distance it is a 15:1 hill down and 17:1 coming back up. All in all a pleasant stay and would highly recommend.

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• Suzanne - Verified booking

  This has to be one of the best places we have stayed for peace and quiet.

  There is another pod, however this was vacant during our week so we had the place all to ourselves. Having said that we think it will still have been relaxing should the other pod have been used. We have stayed in a similar pod elsewhere so knew it would be nice. The advantage to this pod being provately owned is that is was epuipt with EVERYTHING you would need and more. Diane has thought of everything. My husband and two german shepherds didnt leave the site at all. The dogos loved the space outside, being nice and secure just off the quiet road allowed us to relax with being concerned about them wandering out. (Not that they would but easing nonetheless) There are plenty of walks and places to visit should you so choose, great place for singles, couples and families alike. We were lucky with the weather as a whole and got to use the gas fuelled BBQ. Makes such a change to having to source coal etc when staying somewhere, so this was great. A big bonus for us is that the location is only an hour and a half from home yet. This is truely a little gem and we will definately be back .

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• Thomas - Verified booking

  We stayed for 3 nights as a mini honeymoon and it was absolutely perfect.

  The pod was incredibly clean and every detail had been thought of, there were so many added comforts that were much appreciated, such as the blankets, the badminton set, the good quality towels, the really comfy bed and the nice crockery. We cooked some really lovely meals using the George Foreman bbq. It is located in the middle of nowhere, its 20 minutes drive to the nearest shop but we were happy with that, it was completely silent at night, other than the quiet humming of the hot tub and with such minimal light pollution we got amazing views of the stars at night. The hot tub was lovely, very clean and private and to sit in that and look out at the countryside was so relaxing! I have only scored a 7 on how likely I am to recommend to others because while we were there, our friends were asking for the details and when we went to send them, we realised the prices had more than doubled since we booked which I get, what with inflation but we won't be able to return again now as for the same money for us to spend 3 nights there, we could go abroad for a week.

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