Apartment 1 St Mary's Church

The apartment on first sight is lovely, well furnished and clean but there are some basic maintenance and housekeeping issues that let it down. The first problem was no hot water. We called the owner who came over within 20 mins and said it was a known problem. They had a new boiler installed a couple of months ago and there was a fault that they were waiting on an engineer to fix. He showed my husband how to remove the cover and re-et the boiler with a screwdriver. This is not just a small boiler but a full-size floor standing one the height of my husband, 6’1”. My husband had to reset it six times during the week. There is no way I could have lifted a boiler cover off and even reached the reset button. The lights on the cooker hood didn’t work, nor the under-unit lights in the kitchen and it was quite a dark area to work in. The microwave didn’t work. It turned on and the fan came on but it didn’t heat anything. The extract fan in the bathroom didn’t work. When I went to put washing on the machine was full of stagnant water so I had to drain it first. There is no soap dish or shelf in the shower to keep soap, shower gel, shampoo etc and the grouting needs a good clean. We were left with a ¾ used toilet roll in the shower room. If I’m paying £1000, the least I expect is a new toilet roll, not the left-overs from someone else. The bedding is not the best of quality, especially the cheap pillows and there was no mattress or pillow protectors (an essential for guest’s hygiene and the owner’s housekeeping). The bed itself was comfortable though. Inside the building, just outside the apartment there is noticeable damp and mildew growth that doesn’t present a good first impression. It would have been an added touch if the owners had provided a welcome book with useful info on places to visit and eat but we were only left instructions to empty the bins and strip the bed. We reported the maintenance issues to the owners who said they were not aware of them (apart from the boiler) but I have read previous reviews about the lights and the washing machine. It could be a lovely apartment with more care and attention but sadly we wouldn’t rate it highly enough to stay again nor recommend it.

This apartment is beautiful,clean and smartly decorated. The furniture is contemporary and very comfortable. Very spacious with a choice of bathrooms. The underfloor heating worked well as we visited during the very chilly May weekend. However, there was a strong draught from the quaint windows and there were maintenance issues. The hob lights were out and so were the undercupboard lights. The main staircase shows a lot of damp evidence . I have reported this in my feedback to Sykes

This is a really lovely property within spitting distance of the town centre. The apartment was spotlessly clean, with lovely quality furniture and kitchen equipment. We had a bit of a problem with rainwater coming into the apartment but I guess that’s a quirk of staying in a converted church in February when it’s raining non stop. Don’t let that put you off though as I think we were just unlucky. Would definitely recommend.