We stayed at Bluebell for 5nights over Christmas with our 1 year old daughter.
Our very first impressions of Bluebell Cottage were good ones. It had a cosy/romantic feel to it. Things changed quickly though, on our first night we had problems with the heating, we couldn't get it working at all so our first night (xmas eve) was a very chilly one. There was also no logs or kindling supplied for the log burner like it says there will be. We tried making contact with the owners and had no luck! It was a very unpleasant and cold first night to say the least. The heating finally kicked in the next morning so atleast we warmed up....but then it went to the other extreme and we were peft absolutely melting! We managed to enjoy a couple of days over Christmas and then on our 3rd day we woke up to all the electrics tripped, we tried to contact all 3 contact numbers left at the property for 'in case of a problem' - we rang each number, whatsapped and text messaged each number with not a single answer nor response. The whatsapp message was clearly read on one number because they accidently left a voice note (of background noise) but still failed to respond to our message. After giving them some time to respond we got in touch with Sykes and they got in touch with the owner on our behalf. Sykes told us the owner had said they would send out an electrician and that the problem we were experiencing is a common problem (which means they have failed to rectify a reoccuring issue) because the hot tub trips the electrics if it gets wet.... which led us to believe the hot tub is not safe! We hadn't used the hot tub prior to this problem and then felt unable to be safe whilst doing so. There is also a cctv camera pointing straight at the hot tub - this is not disclosed anywhere prior to booking or within the 'welcome pack'. On the back door there is a notice with 'rules' of the hot tub on, not a single mention of the camera being there. This made us feel extremely uncomfortable, like we were being spied on. The hot tub was also poorly maintained... only on day 5 of our stay was it dipped/ph levels tested. The points above were big problems during our stay. There were a few niggly things too - no scissors, only one frying pan, no hairdryer, photos of property need updating as theres a new sofa to those shown, no antibacterial spray, fridge/freezer not cold enough, no fire starter pack when we arrived like it said there would be, property dusty, bathrooms/ensuites are really smelly, heating has mind of it's own and the layout is a bit confusing (bin where fridge should have been etc).
Very disappointing stay and terrible owners that clearly don't give a flying poo about their guests enjoying their holiday. Unfortunately, we would highly recommend others due to stay here to cancel for a full refund and go somewhere else. We had looked forward to this stay all year and it's been a complete flop.
We paid over £800 for our stay and feel absolutely ripped off. We spent 2 days of our 5 night break trying to sort problems out! Not the relaxing break we had been looking forward to all year!
We booked through Sykes and they literally couldn't care less about their customers. They run to the owners and believe anything they say! The owners have told Sykes there are notices in the property of cctv - there isn't and I have video evidence of the whole property to prove this.
I would avoid booking anything though them because they don't want to know when there is a problem.