4 The Old Smithy

The location and layout of the house are nice, but the condition and cleaning let it down badly. We paid £1200 for the week and expected a much higher standard. The house was dusty and not properly cleaned, and several things needed easy repairs: the kitchen chairs were badly chewed, presumably by a dog; the bath panel had blown; the shower screen was falling apart and leaking; curtain tie backs were coming off the wall; and the Number 2 bedroom window was broken. It looks like the owner has given up on the place. We booked through Sykes holiday cottages and have no idea who the owner is. Sykes didn’t seem interested in sorting out our concerns. They wouldn’t answer the phone, and after saying they’d pass our photos to the owner, we felt fobbed off. Please don’t use them. Update 2nd September: the owner’s reply to our review makes it look as if they wanted to help find a solution. In reality, we were ghosted, with no reply to the email they asked us to send.