Self-Catering Freshwinds in Ashbourne

Kirsty N

April 2024

I really don't understand the previous reviews of people complaining so much! I have to say after reading the reviews I was really quite worried. We have just stayed here for the weekend, 10 adults. 2 teens and 3 children and we've had an excellent time, there is so much to keep everyone entertained and the kids had a blast!! The property is dated but homely and has everything you need in the kitchen etc We had a blast on the karaoke (apologies to the neighbours) The kids have absolutely loved the pool and hot tub and they enjoyed playing ping pong and football! There's darts, air hockey and pool for the older ones too and also x box consoles. We had a bit of a problem with the downstairs toilet blocking up on the morning we were leaving but we rang and reported it and the maintenance guy came out to get it sorted just as we were leaving. It's a shame there's no music allowed outside but this wasn't really a problem as the weather wasn't that nice for us anyway. The only thing that could do with changing is the checking in and out times as we didn't really get enough time with not being able to check in until 4pm and having to leave by 10am, it would have been a lot better to check in ealier and check out a bit later. All in all we had a fab weekend and the main thing is that the property enabled all 15 family members from different parts of the country to be together and have a great time.

MikeKidderminster

March 2024

Cannot understand previous reports, seems someone has a grudge. Celebrated my 80th Birthday with 10 family members, and the house met all our expectations and more. Place was clean, tidy and had great facilities including warm pool and warmer hot tub. We organised our own overall competition including table tennis, pool, air hockey, darts, etc.. Some of the downstairs area is dated, but this does not affect the overall attraction. Manager Steve was particularly helpful on handover or if we needed to know anything. Based on our experience, would definitely recommend.

SageFemmeDuNord

November 2023

This was undoubtedly the worst maintained holiday let we as a family have had the misfortune of booking. Owned by a profit seeking unscrupulous individual, more interested in a quick buck than the experience of his guests. Numerous problems were encountered during our stay, filthy dishes in the cupboards, built in oven that someone hadn’t built in rendering it positively dangerous, shower outlets blocked with the previous guests hair, dishwasher that we were advised from the outset to put on the hottest pot wash ( why would you do that unless you knew there was an issue with it??) despite this the maintenance man had been in the property filming without our consent to suggest we were fabricating the issues with the dishwasher which finally did the job following running the cycle 6 times with x2 dishwasher tablets on the hottest setting??? The biggest issue was with the hot tub - ‘cold tub ‘more accurately describes it. Not ready for use until nearly midnight on our second day! Not once did the owner contact us during our stay to actually discuss the issues - he did however inform us of exactly what time some of our younger guests, fed up of waiting for the hot tub to reach the required temperature, entered the hot tub……..we found the fact that we were being watched whilst in the hot tub a gross violation of privacy. The plethora of outdoor notices of ‘Be Quiet’, ‘No music’ was like the fun police had been let loose, and the notice to guests ’Do not pee in the hot tub’ was vulgar and insulting to guests. Avoid booking it at all but avoid booking with Sykes, they will do precisely nothing to support you when things go wrong, they are merely interested in their commission. In short… if you are seeking a high end property to enjoy with family and friends, don’t be reeled in by the pictures, they’re misleading…..keep looking…. because this isn’t it!

CCtravel222

October 2023

Recently stayed here with family and although the property had excellent potential based on facilities the property was well and truly in need of some TLC. The fitted oven was sliding out of its casing which was quite frankly dangerous. The dishwasher was out of use most of our stay and producing dirty dishes. The hot tub was so underheated on arrival we could only manage a chilly hour in it on the first day and could only enjoy the 2nd evening of our trip after someone had come out to attend to this issue. We experienced quite a few issues during our stay to which Steve (the property maintenance man) did his best to assist but this certainly ate into some of our holiday time which we had paid good money for. The most disappointing part of all was the owner - Robert. He had an answer for everything and solution for nothing. He texted our main guest at 12pm at night with some long winded message about how they only make £500 per holiday and how his daughter owns a pub in leeds? no doubt drunk as a fart and playing on his tiny violin about how much money he makes from his way below par accomodation.

Callum M

October 2023

Stayed here for a week at the back end of October with family, a party of 10, A great house and variety of things to do, however a lot of improvements needed including the owners attitude to guests who are paying thousands of pounds! If you are looking to bring an elderly person who struggles with mobility issues I wouldn’t bother there is no disability access and lots of stairs! Too kick things off we love getting in the hot tub and this is a main accessory that we look for when looking to book for stays away and a-lot of the time is spent in there, this was unavailable to use on the first night as it was 32 degrees yet being told the temperature should have been 40 degrees and was unbearable, the next day (first full day of the holiday) after leaving it all night we thought this would be resolved however the temperature was still at 32 degrees so Steve came to have a look at it and changed the hot tub cover back to its original which was snapped and told this was why it was not being used and the temporary cover was being used, however after using the proper hot tub lid there were no issues all week and the temperature stayed at 40, the hot tub was then only available to use at 11 o’clock that night which is completely unacceptable and should not be out of action for 48 hours because a ‘lid issue’ that should have been sorted before their next set of guests were arriving instead of putting it to the side and attempting to use a sheet to keep the warmth in which I find truly bizarre and have never seen anything like it! When loading the dishwasher and putting plates away after tea on the first night there were dirty plates found in the dishwasher that had not been moved or cleaned from previous guests despite there being ‘6 cleaners’ being paid which the owner told my relative when discussing another issue and explaining his profit and income on the property which I find extremely odd and no relevance what so over to guests staying there, for the first few nights we’re having to hand wash dishes for a party of 10 which as you can imagine was a nightmare and nobody was sent out to come and look at the dishwasher despite being made aware of the issue. The ‘built in oven’ was another massive issue when you pulled the handle down the whole oven would come out and if it was pulled with abit of force it would fall on the floor and cause some serious damage to whoever is using it meaning you have the use one hand to keep the oven in place and the other to pull the handle down, how this was not an issue that they thought to make guests aware of I do not know, There was a leak in the sink for the bathroom upstairs they was made aware of this and Steve came quite promptly and explained there was no issue despite picture evidence and video evidence of the sink leaking but to be fair there was no issues with it for the further 2 days that we stayed, on the final night me and my cousin was in the hot tub listening to music on a small speaker which wasn’t even turned to max volume and could barely hear it with the bubbles being on in the hot tub and the owner had phoned my relative to say there had been a complaint made about the noise which put a dampener on our evening and our last night was ended quite swiftly as we couldn’t feel relaxed and to be quite honest felt Asif we was being watched as the music was not even that loud, another thing there are around 30 signs asking you to be quiet and ‘respect the neighbours’, people come away to relax and have a good time with relatives which for alot of people is relaxing listening to music and chatting away, what they do not need is a constant reminder in your face everywhere you look on near enough every bit of outside equipment asking you to be quiet, I never ever write a bad review but to be quite frank the owners attitude has been appalling and has been no help or showed any gratitude whatsoever despite us paying thousands of pounds to stay here, it is such a shame as the property and the grounds itself look amazing and there are lots of things to do (If working properly), luckily enough we didn’t let it ruin our holiday too much but not for the lack of trying.

Vacation13333694196

October 2023

Where do I start? From the evening we arrived there were issues. To suggest that there are 6 cleaners appointed to this house is fanciful to the extreme. Dirty dishes in the cupboards, spiderwebs in the shower (i actually walked into one in the shower door), clogged showers, fresh towels not ready yet. The sink in the bathroom upstairs leaked puddles of water on the floor, soaking the rug. There is a check out time of 10am and a check in time of 4pm, I could live with the inconvenience if the place was spotless, but spotless it was not. More to the point, the cleaner was waiting at the bottom of the drive at bang on 10am, if not sooner. Talk about being ushered out the property. A fun vacuum is what I would describe the outdoor facilities are. There are less instructions/warning signs at HMP Bellmarsh than there is around the pool and hottub area. Then to be told the owner has watched us in the hot tub on his CCTV, talk about an invasion of privacy. The house has so much potential but it lacks care from whoever owns it, who I’m told is a property developer. The decor is dated and confusing, it just seems like every spare bit of furniture etc has been thrown in all together, for some reason unbeknown to anyone living; there are FOUR guitars in one of the living areas, perhaps someone told him the Beetles were stopping by!!! The driveway needs serious work, we took 5 cars between 11 of us (the house can sleep more) and it’s a game of Tetris trying to manoeuvre cars around to get in an out, not to mention it is impossible to not have to reverse down the winding drive way. A mirror is also needed at the bottom to account for the tight small lane and oncoming cars, it’s dangerous. We were incredibly unhappy to pay over 3,000 for what we received, everything went wrong that could go wrong and we were made to feel like we were asking for the world when in actual fact, we’re asking for the bare minimum. I will not be coming here again, there are much better options elsewhere.

Caroline M

August 2023

I have just arrived home from a week here . Photos advertised were misleading . 11 of us stayed here ,one shower had cold water , one shower has scalding water, bbq’s were unusable. Old towels from previous guests were left, some of the sheets were dirty, ovens were insufficient to cook large family meals. Dishwasher door hanging off . I won’t want to offer negative reviews but for £6k, we were expecting better that this . Needs an overhaul, good clean & attention to detail. Beautiful location , real shame about what this place sown

Tracey B

June 2023

Absolutely wonderful holiday that suited all my 11 family members from a 7 year old to a 63 year old. It is unsuitable for inform or wheelchair users as there are plenty of steps to negotiate up to the front door and into the back garden although this does show in the photographs We will certainly be booking again in the future

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Freshwinds Ashbourne, Staffordshire

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