Meiklebob Holidays Reviews 4

We've just returned from a week at Hereford Cottage. The location is ideal; it's nice to be in a rural location on a working farm. Our first impressions of this place was the drive up an awful farm track - probably ok if you drive a 4x4 but my little hatchback really struggled and I was concerned about damage to the underside/exhaust as the track was so bad. The cottage itself could have been cleaner - there was quite a thick layer of dust on the headboard in the main bedroom and a huge, thick cobweb in the corner which must have been there for ages. Even if you wanted to give things a clean, nothing is provided. The only things provided were a bottle of washing-up liquid, dishwater tablets, 2 small scourers, a dust pan and brush as well as half a toilet roll in each bathroom! The main bedroom is advertised as a king size with en-suite which is misleading as the bed is definitely a double! In the en-suite toilet, the flush didn't work and it took 3 phone calls to get anything done. When the chap eventually turned up, he was armed with a large bucket of water and a plunger as the message he got was the toilet was blocked (despite 3 messages saying the flush didn't work)!! It was eventually fixed but as my husband has mobility issues, the en-suite was essential. For the first 2 days, 4 adults had to use the one toilet - definitely not ideal. In the kitchen, one of the cupboard doors fell off as soon as we opened it and the large flip-top bin didn't have a lid, which was very unhygienic. Everything was sorted on the Monday, but it was very frustrating not being able to contact anyone for 1.5 days. The hot tub was unusable as it was stuck under trees which would make it very difficult to get in or out of. It was actually really dirty-looking because of all the leaves etc falling off the trees. The only instructions provided were for the TV and fridge, which I'm sure most people would know how to work! You're left to try and work out how to use the microwave, washing machine, dishwasher and oven! You are told the WiFi is intermittent but it's actually non-existent but if it is available at times, you're not given the details or password. Other little things need attention - curtains are either hanging off the rails or don't actually fit the windows; the living room door doesn't shut and the main bedroom shuts so well, it's incredibly difficult to open. For 4 adults, you are provided with 5 dinner plates but only 3 cereal bowls, 4 table mats but only 3 coasters, no sugar bowl or jug. A little more care and attention would make this property quite stunning.

This was our first excursion into the world of self-catering UK holidays. Overall, very disappointed with the experience. Makes it very difficult to want to try again.
The farm is run by a very nice family, location is idyllic the views are lovely, and the animals are great. The size of the property and garden were really good for us and the dogs.
The beds were comfy enough for a holiday let, and the bedding and towels were spotless.
Having looked at other reviews it is clear that the owners do not react to comments as most of the issues mentioned have still not been addressed even after a year.
The place needs a thorough good clean, including the inside of washing machine which was very mouldy the drawer I don't think has ever been cleaned, it took two days of soaking to remove most of the black mould from it and it doesn't wash terribly well either.
The dishwasher tray had two wheels missing which jiggles the pots too much which is I think is why most of them are chipped.
The property lacks basic equipment like a clothes dryer/rack, a jug, fruit bowl and egg cups. After speaking to other people on the complex some managed to get some of these items. They should be included and available without having to ask.
The draining board wasn't draining and when I poured boiling water on it to help clear it, I got smelly mud like gunk coming back up the drain hole. Discovering it was blocked solid, we did unblock and completely clean this ourselves. We didn't want to complain as we go on holiday for a bit of peace and quiet and don't want to bother or be bothered by others all the time.
There were a couple of other things which we did have to ask Alex about, and he did come to sort them. The property needs of a bit of a refurbishment. The curtains are filthy and very tatty most of the runners are broken and some don't even close properly.
The sofas in the bedrooms are not necessary as a chest of drawers would be much more useful. There was nowhere to put things in the showers or shower room. There were only 13 coat hangers which for four people was not a lot for two weeks. There was no mirror near a plug socket to use a hairdryer except in the main living room.
Although Wi-Fi is advertised with a warning that it may be intermittent it is non-existent. Your adverts (Sykes Holiday Cottages) would be much clearer if Wi-Fi speeds were shown. Given that the TV was only basic (Freeview) a good internet connection would have allowed the viewing of Netflix, Amazon Prime and Sky go. It was very frustrating spending two weeks without connection to the rest of the world.
The Hot Tub was located next to a Laurel tree which made it very private, but the tree had not been trimmed for ages and hung over the tub making it difficult to access.
It would also be good if the grass was cut occasionally, it looked like it needed cutting when we arrived, but it was never done the whole time we were there.
I did work for a cleaning company and oversaw a team who did staging for house sales and setting up for lettings, so I do know what is acceptable and what isn't, and I am sorry to say this most certainly is not. The furniture has not been moved for some time which is why there is a lot of fluff, a dirty sock, and a kitchen sieve under the beds. It was such a shame as with a bit more care and attention to detail the cottage would be amazing.
I understand that because of covid leaving paper items such as instructions would be difficult but, could you not put together an electronic pack with all instruction manuals, handy tips and local amenities. If all your places are run to the same standards, I will not be booking any more holidays through your company.
I would suggest you send a secret stayer to examine the properties so that you adverts reflect reality and can give your purchasers a better experience. This location has the potential to be fantastic but is now just tired and sad.

Avoid this place we’ve had it booked now for months and had rearranged once due to COVID and we’re due to stay for 3 days In 2 cottages in less than 48 hours we have just Received an email stating there cancelling one of our cottages due to COVID. Why one half of our party can’t travel and the other half stay at home. Aswell as this there’s no restrictions at present and if we’d have received a bit of notice we’d have been able to try and book elsewhere. We have been trying to contact Christine for over 2 weeks to check all was ok with the booking as we hadn’t been receiving any correspondence whatsoever I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say my wife has rang around a hundred times before today just to check at no point has anyone answered or responded to our left messages. BUT she answered once when my wife decided to try her off another phone. My wife tried to be reasonable even though we had been ignored and Christine promised to ring my wife back which she didn’t that was around a week ago. We now have no refund, unsure if she’s cancelled both cottages or one. No one will respond and even if we had our refund to book elsewhere which we don’t. We’d have no chance with less than 48 hours to do so. We know other people are staying here at the moment as we can see on snap chat and this leads us to believe they have double booked and they’ve known for a while and this is this is the reason that have and are still ignoring all phone calls and emails we send.

Where do I even start 😔 saw this holiday in Groupon for £249 for a 4 bed cottage. Called them to check for availability and spoke to Christine, the business owner, who said she'd contact me in a couple of hours to let me know if she had availability. She never did so I called her, got no apology but as this wasn't a particularly big deal I booked anyway as she seemed decent. Booked two cottages, one for my fam and one for a friend's fam. Emailed her a few days before we went with questions such as, is there WiFi?, and recieved no response. Still not a massive deal, maybe she's busy. Arrived at the cottage on Wednesday afternoon to find that staff were nowhere to be found. We were wandering around for half an hour trying to find someone following a three hour journey to the cottage itself. Eventually we came across other guests who were wandering around looking for Christine because they had no knives in their cottage (they were told nothing could be done about this by the way its wasn't her problem ). Eventually we found her, she took us to threave cottage, let us in, told us how to use the thermostat and left. As we recieved no other info we assumed there'd be a book with instructions of how to use the hot tub, fire exits, wifi passwords etc etc (spoiler: they didn't leave anything). Still we didn't complain and it was clean and tidy. We used the hot tub which wasn't entirely clean and clearly needed more chlorine but was usable. The family who had hired the other cottage by this point had NO RUNNING WATER. Scottish water were called and in the meantime they came to our cottage and used out shower and water. However by the evening Scottish water had told them the water wasn't going to be fixed that night. Resulting in them essentially staying in our cottage. By night time our water had also gone off, we recieved no communication from the owners to say this was going to happen but assumed as it was out of their control they weren't aware. We were patient and didn't complain at this point despite having no drinking water. The next morning we contacted Christine to ask if she could check the quality of the water in our hot tub so we could use it again. She responded that it would be checked at some point but would not respond when I asked when so I could plan my day around when we could use it. Ten minutes later a man turned up saying he would drain it and it would be ready in the evening. We asked this man If we could have some bottled drinking water to which he responded he didn't have any and couldn't help. As we physically could not survive without the water or use the services we decided to go out to Castle Douglas for the afternoon and return in the evening jn the hopes we would have running water by then. When we came back not only was there no running water but the hot tub had been filled with some sort of brown murky liquid and was completely unusable. At this point we contacted Christine 4 TIMES and she ignored every call. We waited an hour and tried again and she had switched her phone off. We walked around the farm for an hour and even knocked on her door twice to let her know how uncomfortable we were and that there was dirt in the hot tub. We couldn't find anyone other than other disgruntled guests who also had no idea why the water was off. Luckily we had bought some drinking water from the village just in case. We had to use this to brush our teeth and clean the dishes having had no response to calls and texts from Christine. The next morning we were expected to leave at 10am. I finally managed to get Christine to answer her phone and asked her to visit our cottage. She arrived and offered no apology despite acknowledging that she had recieved our calls and insisted that our inconveniences were down to Scottish water. I calmly and politely explained that we understood that the situation was out of her control but it was disappointing that we had no contact from her and that we hadn't been able to use any of the services we'd paid for. We'd essentially been worse off than if we'd stayed home. She said she didn't want to argue and what did I want, I asked for a refund for our cottage. She said she wouldn't do that because I breached the terms and conditions by using the hot tub of our family friends cottage. This was outrageous as I had done no such thing. I explained this to her and said we had no even seen the other cottage or been near the hot tub. She was very defensive and got irritated, she eventually agreed to a refund and said in her own words 'I'll transfer the money by close of business'. I thanked her and then told her that by the way there was no health and safety info available to us in regards to the hot tub and she may want to consider leaving this for her next guests to which she snappily responded that this info was available in the cottage. I said we couldn't find a single piece of paper, she did not respond and left the cottage. Even at this point I was calm, albeit exhausted from a pretty horrendous holiday, but left to go home. I then recieved an email FINALLY SAYING I'M SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE but refusing a full refund because a family staying in a separate cottage had breached their T&Cs. Naturally I responded explaining how utterly unacceptable it was to have this response following a promise of a full refund. I was still calm and articulate and explained that if I could just get my £249 I'd let the matter go. She did not respond so the following day I texted her asking her to respobd to my email. Unsurprisingly she ignored this. It's now Sunday morning and understandably I am extremely frustrated. I texted her again saying Id be contacting her every day until she dealt with this because she was burying her head in the sand. She finally responded saying she'd reply to me in business hours. I replied saying she probably wouldn't because she's ignored all my correspondence so far to which Christine responded that she was going to report me to the police for harassment!!!! I told her to go ahead and while she was at it to explain how she'd left a family with a disabled mother with no running water and then refused to compensate for their suffering.

Unsurprisingly I have had no response. I absolutely will no be letting this go and have spoken to family that are well aware of legislation who may be able to help me pursue this further. Had she been professional and open, we would have no issues but as she is now accusing me of harrasment over £249 it's not something I'm just going to let go. All in all the worst three days holiday of my life. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.