The Old School House

Room 1 was bright and a good size, though its condition showed the age of the property and it needs refurbishing. We appreciated the quiet location, easy parking and comfortable beds. Coralia was very helpful in sorting out issues that needed prompt attention, but even so, we weren't particularly impressed with the quality of the Old School House.

This is just about apartment 7. We couldn't use the attached car park, but there was plenty of street parking nearby, and the location was good. The flat wasn't too bad for cleanliness, though it could have done with a proper clean throughout. With a small amount spent on it, it could be a lovely apartment. We arrived on Saturday evening to find there was no hot water because the immersion heater hadn't been switched on. I couldn't locate the two switches, and the helpline wasn't much help: the woman I spoke to didn't seem to know what an immersion heater was and kept explaining how to turn on the shower. Someone was sent over, but we'd found the second switch ourselves by then. It was too late for the water to heat before we had to leave for the party we'd travelled for. The shower head bracket was broken, so I had to hold the head in one hand and wash with the other. A wardrobe drawer in the double room fell apart when I pulled it out. After about ten minutes of banging and forcing it back into place, it no longer jammed the doors, but the drawers still couldn't be used. Edit: I just read a review from four months ago and smiled. It sounds almost exactly like mine, including the broken shower bracket in apartment 7, even though the owners apparently took the feedback on board... lol.

We paid good money for a one-night stay in apartment 7, a two-bedroom place, and it was very disappointing. Thank goodness it was only one night. The hot water was limited, the shower head was broken, the bath's hot tap spun around, and there was no Wi-Fi. There was no central heating either, just three small oil radiators for the whole flat, which wasn't warm at all in mid-February. When I came in through the door, I fell down the steps just behind it. There's a black warning sign, but you'd need to be six feet tall to see it. Before that, we'd had a call saying apartment 7 was damaged and wouldn't be ready for check-in. They offered a very nice one-bedroom flat down the road instead. When I asked how many bedrooms it had, I said no because I'd booked a two-bedroom and wasn't sharing beds. The woman said she'd call back in a minute, then rang half an hour later to say, surprisingly, we could have No 7 after all because it would be ready. Fantastic, I thought.

The owners were excellent when we called about the apartment's problems. They moved us from apartment 7 to apartment 9 upstairs, which was a huge improvement, like chalk and cheese, so things worked out. I do wonder what would have happened if apartment 9 hadn't been free. It was on the top floor, with a lot of stairs. We hadn't been told there were four steps inside apartment 7, so we had to watch our footing. It was dark and very tired, and the boiler wasn't making hot water. The location wasn't ideal for us either: it was quite a walk to the town centre, restaurants and supermarkets, which sometimes put us off going out. I'd suggest staying somewhere closer.