N2953DJgeraldc
April 2022
Cwmgilla Farm near Knighton Powys23rd April 2022
My name is Gerald Cooper, my family and I rented Cwmgilla Farm for a holiday in Wales from 15-22 April 2022.
We found Cwmgilla Farm to be set in a very pleasant and extremely quiet location, just over the English/Welsh border near Knighton. The layout of the property was as described and we found the bedding and towels to be well laundered and fit for their purpose. The kitchen was well equipped with a good range of utensils, crockery, glasses etc and a nice welcome basket of tea, coffee etc.
Sadly, that is just about all of the positive comments that we are able to offer.
I fully understand that due to covid lockdowns, the last couple of years have not been very profitable for the holiday and entertainment sectors. If anything, that should have encouraged holiday rental property owners to ensure that their properties were ready to receive guests when lockdown lifted. That clearly was not the stance taken by this cottage’s owners.
Outside of the front door was a wooden bench, I sat on it to remove my shoes before entering the property and it virtually fell apart.
Moving on through into the lounge, The seating in this room consisted of a leather suite and a fabric settee, There were at least five tears in the leather fabric, some as much a three inches long. The fabric settee was in better condition. The lounge door did not shut correctly, upon inspection the door catch had been installed backwards and the hinges where being pulled out of the frame.
The television in this room was a rather small 26” basic model which fortunately we found little time to use, however it was indicative of the standard of cleanliness throughout the property.
A further indicator of the standard of cleanliness was when one of my grandchildren spilled a drink on the floor, we quickly mopped it up and had to throw the cloth we had used away as it was filthy dirty, clearly the laminate floor had not been mopped in months.
The snug room, opposite the lounge, was equipped with a fabric corner sofa, The seating surface of this sofa was damaged to the extent that several cushions had been shoved into the resulting hole prior to the main cushion being replaced, This sofa was essentially unusable.
Moving on into the kitchen, Ostensibly this was one of the better rooms in the house, except that the top shelf of the dishwasher collapsed any time that it was touched, there was a roasting pan that was too large for any oven and whilst there were plenty of glasses provided, there were no heavy duty plastic ones for taking outside to the hot tub. The ceiling between the kitchen and utility room (which was directly below the main family bathroom) was water stained where the mastic seal around the bath had pulled away and allowed water to quite literally run down the wall and off of the doorframe below. We reported this to the property owners and they did have a handyman come out the same day to apply more mastic, He didn’t take the old mastic off before applying the new, so this will without doubt reopen in the very near future.
The utility room also housed the downstairs toilet and shower for use upon leaving the hot tub. The shower mixer valve on this shower did not work properly (the thermostatic element was knackered) and it would only allow cold water to flow. The handyman did have a quick look at this when he visited but was unable to do anything to mend it. Hence it was unusable throughout our stay, This, coupled with having to let the freshly applied mastic set, meant that we were reduced to one shower between 8 people for the following 24 hours. Whilst on the subject of showers, the one in the en-suite bathroom started to leak water through the ceiling into the lounge on day 5 of our stay, once again this was due to the mastic seal along the bottom of the shower panel having split and thus allowing water to pass. Three showers, three significant defects, reduced to one shower for the bulk of our stay.
Moving through into the games room, the main reason for us booking this cottage in the first instance. The floor was somewhat uneven, the carpet in the main part being badly wrinkled and hence a not insignificant trip hazard. The table tennis table, which is a fold up type was quite badly damaged and the table top did not sit flat, the bats were in poor condition, (Thankfully we took our own). The Dart board itself was fine, but the doors (which form the scoreboard) had seen better days and did not take chalk well. The one set of darts supplied were damaged beyond any sensible use. The pool table was a rather inexpensive home games room type which had a base made from plyboard, this was warped to the extent that the table was laughably wonky and the balls appeared to have a mind of their own. Cheap kids table football set up which was useable but not what we expected.
Hot tub: The hot tub was s major feature in our decision to book Cwmgilla Farm, Once again this facility suffered from a lack of attention to detail. One of the water jet control knobs was broken. All of the clips holding the lid were broken and the folding mechanism for the lid was broken and disconnected. It lacked a fine strainer to allow those using it to scoop out any bugs or dirt that may have gotten in. Otherwise it worked well enough and was well used.
The bedrooms appeared to be in good order until one started to look a little more closely. The ensuite bedroom bed had been damaged and repaired in what I can only describe as the most agricultural of manners.
In the twin room to the rear of the property the beds were repaired in a similar manner.
Family Bathroom: This bathroom was in very poor decorative order, had black mould on a number of surfaces, Broken ceramic tiles on the floor, cracked and water stained ceiling and as previously stated a leaking bath silicon seal. The bathroom and toilet doors locks have been broken and replaced with shootbolts, one of which is itself broken.
Generally speaking the décor in this property needs significant upgrading. Walls are stained, doors and woodwork need painting, water damage to pretty much every ceiling. In short it needs some TLC.
Moving back outside, The cattlegrid, over which the property is accessed, is completely broken with even the steel pipes having broken in half and which are now covered with ply which is itself breaking down.
The outside lights do not work
The lawn (if one may call it that) needs mowing and the molehills need to be addressed.
The fencing which is supposed to be dog proof is generally ok but many fence posts and rails are broken.
The Property is heated by a biomass boiler, we had this fail during one day of our stay and judging by comments in the visitors book this is an ongoing problem. The owner did attend within a few hours to rectify the issue in our case.
We paid a very significant sum for the pleasure of staying at Cwmgilla Farm, I do not believe that we received value for money and indeed I would suspect that in legal terms our contract was not fulfilled.
I believe that a significant refund is due to us for the shortcomings in the rental property, I would expect that refund to be no less than 50% of the fee paid for this holiday.
I look forward to your earliest response together with your remittance.
Yours sincerely
Gerald Cooper
I supplied a dozen or more photographs showing the issues noted above to support the veracity of this review but unfortunately cannot include them in this review.
If you are looking for a well decorated, well maintained and well equipped property for your holiday, this is not for you.