Hafan Y Coed

The caretaker was lovely and made us feel welcome, and the four of us, including our dog, had a great time together. We even watched a scary movie. The place looks cluttered from outside, with old sofas, broken cars and other things lying around, but inside it felt warm and friendly, with a rustic charm. The rooms were clean, the beds comfortable, and we all slept well. I’d been unsure what to expect after reading some pretty awful reviews. I picked it because it’s near several hikes my two boys, aged 9 and 10, wanted to do before school started again. Honestly, I don’t understand what everyone was complaining about.

The late-night chats and laughs in the shared lounge were the best part for me. I met some amazing people, and it had a proper traveler community feel. I stayed at Haven of Trees on my own for a cheap escape from the city, and it suited me, though it won’t be for everyone. This is a quirky, rustic place with a hostel-like feel, not a typical guesthouse. It’s rough around the edges and still being developed, but as a budget place to stay, it wasn’t too bad. The property has plenty of character, with interesting artefacts scattered around, almost like a spiritual sanctuary mixed with a backpacker’s lodge. Some parts are abandoned or unused, and not all the showers and taps worked. My private room had electricity, hot water, a kettle and a microwave. There’s no kitchen or Wi-Fi, though my phone had a very good signal, so bring your own cutlery and be ready for a simple stay. There’s plenty to do nearby, from waterfalls and scenic hikes to a pub with a mini zoo, and Zip World for something more high-energy. Some of the reviews nearly put me off, but I decided to keep an open mind. If you expect hotel standards, you’ll be disappointed. If you’re easygoing and adventurous and just need somewhere cheap and interesting to rest between outdoor exploring, it’s a hidden gem.

I’m angry with both the establishment and booking.com. The place was awful and dirty when we went to see it on check-in day, and we couldn’t stay there. I have a lot of allergies and always choose clean hotels or inns, so this wasn’t acceptable. I also feel the establishment clearly doesn’t care what guests think or where they sleep. Hygiene authorities should inspect it. It should be closed! Before that, I’d never received an email from the owner after booking, unlike with every other booking I’d made, though at first I thought nothing of it. A few days before arrival, I saw all the bad reviews and got scared. It was too late to cancel for a refund, so I contacted booking.com to request reimbursement because of a medical problem. The app’s AI said it had emailed the owner about refunding me despite the cancellation deadline. I got no reply, which I’d expected after never hearing from the owner in the first place. The day before the booking, I called booking.com. The man I spoke to said he’d do everything he could to get my money back or find us another hotel if the owner didn’t answer, so we wouldn’t have to sleep in our car. We were meant to have a solution by 3pm on check-in day, but by 5pm we still had no help. We went to see the place anyway, then called booking.com again and waited 25 minutes before they hung up without speaking to us. We sat in our car until 6pm waiting for them to contact us, but they didn’t. Cold and tired of waiting, we booked another hotel ourselves, almost an hour away. Finding one at our price that accepted dogs on the same day was hard, especially since we’d lost the cost of the unused night. At the new hotel, I called booking.com to say we were disappointed they’d left us without the help they promised. A woman listened to us explain the problem, then hung up. I later got an email saying the owner hadn’t answered booking.com, so I couldn’t be reimbursed for the night we couldn’t spend there. There was no apology for forgetting about us or making promises they didn’t keep. I wonder why booking.com exists if it doesn’t help its clients. I’ll never book a hotel through their website again. From now on, I’ll book directly with hotels.

After driving for 2 hours and 30 minutes, we arrived at about 8pm expecting a quiet forest getaway. Instead, there was what looked like a rubbish dump or littered area right beside it, with a broken-down pink unicorn car next to the dump. We were two families, nine people in total, with four children. The owner or landlord at reception seemed clearly drunk, which didn’t feel appropriate with the kids there. We’d paid for a private bathroom, but there were shared bathrooms with other guests and a communal hall or entryway by the rooms. We were given two rooms instead of four. The sheets were dirty and stained, there was a hospital bed, and the doors didn’t lock properly. It felt almost like a renovated nursery or primary school. One room had a shower and bath, but the shower didn’t work and the bath only had cold water. There was also a round hole in the door that let anyone look through. Another guest warned us about the area, saying it depended where you were from but that there were things children shouldn’t see, and to keep them together. One adult in our group had dreamed a few weeks earlier, before we’d even planned the trip, about the exact room with the window-door and doors that could be opened from either side. Another adult had dreamed the day before about people gathered outside the door. A different group, maybe 13 people and two dogs, had apparently been promised the same rooms and had to find somewhere else. We ended up booking an expensive hotel. Avoid the hassle and don’t book here.