Positives first I guess, upon arrival the owners seemed pleasant and the cottage was nice, in a quiet location.
Unfortunately things only went downhill from here. Every morning at 6am and sometimes again at 6:30am there was a loud banging & thudding noise coming from pipes in the property. We were not made aware of this issue prior to our stay even though the owners were aware of it beforehand. We rented the cottage for a relaxing stay, not to be woken up by loud noises every morning. Had I been made aware of this beforehand I may not have gone ahead with the booking.
The next issue is the pool area is heavily overlooked by the family living there, if you think its going to be a private pool, it is not, the family all sit in a room with a window overlooking the pool and regularly walk between rooms connected to the pool. It also smells strongly of dogs in the pool area, with occasional dog hairs found in the pool.
The biggest issue during our stay was one day when going to use the pool, there was a very strong smell of hash coming from the pool area. This was very unpleasant, particularly when they knew there was tenants staying at the cottage next to their residence, who had 2 young children and planned to use the pool. It was very unprofessional and completely unacceptable.
I contacted Sykes, with whom I made the booking through to seek a refund for this unpleasant stay. They stated that they are only a go between and are not responsible for refunds and suggested I contact the owners directly. However the owners refused to answer my calls and reply to my messages. So Sykes said they would contact them on behalf. They responded and I have attached a picture of the reply with my name, email and reference number blanked out, in which the owners admit to all these failings including the use of drugs. However they refused to offer any form of compensation.
Then I was told Sykes would follow up with the owners as I was happy, then I never heard from them again. I had to make numerous follow up calls and not once did anyone update me or follow up or take any kind of ownership with the issue/case. Months later the owners replied again and denied all allegations that were made, even though they previously confirmed it was all true and Sykes now seem incapable of looking back over previous emails from months ago to confirm otherwise. Its all incredibly unfair and inconsiderate. I would strongly advise anyone to give serious consideration to using these cottages in future.