The Little Paddock Swindon, Wiltshire

We stayed at The Little Paddocks over the Easter weekend and following week. Paid extra for the use of the hot tub. When we arrived we were impressed with the look of the place but the reality was very different. The hot tub was cloudy so not inviting although we were assured it was ok. It wasn’t what I had expected. The shower in the bathroom was cold (we should have had a note left explaining they were waiting for a part). The shower in the shower room was boiling hot and the shower in the annex only provided enough hot water for one shower. With 6 people requiring showers this was not acceptable. Later in the holiday the heating broke down but this was fixed the same day when the Plummer came to fix the shower, leaving muddy footprints all over the floor. We were told we did not need to be at the property as someone would accompany the plummer. They obviously didn’t check the bathroom when he finished. The property has a tired look about the walls and cracked plaster. Not too much of an issue but the final insult was after we returned home we were charged £250 from out Good Housekeeping Bond to replace the shower panel which we were accused of damaging. This has not been rectified as we can’t prove we did not cause the damage. On another occasion my grandson was locked in the bathroom of the annex because the lock fell apart. We booked this through Sykes and they have not been able to sort this problem because we agreed to the Good Housekeeping Bond when we booked the property. This meant the owner could just claim the damages without any consultation with us. The whole experience has left us frustrated and annoyed that we paid to damages we did not cause so be careful of Good Housekeeping Bonds and take photographs of everything you may be accused of damaging

On arrival at The Little Paddock we were most impressed with the location, the property and the facilities, however the property proved that you should most definitely not judge a book by the cover. Issues in the holiday included: • The main house had two showers available, potentially to host 6 people, with a further double room and shower in the annex. Sufficient indeed provided of course you didn’t have the issues that we had. Shower 1 could not be turned up above tepid, shower 2 could not be turned down from hot, fine if you like a hot shower – not fine for a pre-teen. Shower 3 in the annex had enough hot water for one person. This was reported to the landlord after the first night when we discovered the issue. We were advised this had only been reported to the landlord on the day of our arrival – what a lie – given that there was a review of the property from the previous month, visible on the Sykes website reporting the exact same issue. • The water pressure was ridiculous, water either spurted from the tap or dribbled. • Halfway through the holiday the boiler failed, leaving us with no hot water at all, not that we could have showered anyway, but we could now no longer even wash, in addition the temperature of the cottage fell below 16 degrees – official guidance for workplaces is that the temperature should not fall below 16, so to have it fall that low in a cottage that’s marketed with a 5 star rating is absolutely disgusting. We then spent over 3 hours trying to contact the owner and sykes to get this actioned. • One shower between 6 not being enough, the bathroom in the annex that we were forced to share (by no means a 5 star facility), has a faulty lock. Resulting in my son being trapped in a bathroom for almost an hour – sykes are aware of this as we did call to try to get help. Fortunately he was able to use the cotton buds in the vanity kit provided as a makeshift lockpick however had he not been able to get out, with no spare key or ability to get in to the building we would have been stuck. • The hot tub was cloudy – not unclean, but not encouraging. • The property has maintenance issues, with peeling paint in places, it looks tired and in the dining room a patch of plaster missing – are we to be blamed for that too??? • We were offered £150 compensation due to having no heating or hot water. We have not received that, although given that we had two children with us I think £150 is a pathetic offer for a property with no heating at this time of year. School classrooms cannot fall below 18 degrees but it’s acceptable for us to house two children below 16 degrees??? In short I left the property incredibly disappointed, and am now left completely disgusted with the treatment and attitude of the owners, who had clearly failed to action a repair of the facilities reported to them in March and now accuse visitors of damage that they did not inflict.

We've just come home from here, they was 8 of us, we had ample room.The cottage is dressed and decorated to a very high spec, it really was special to enjoy a bit of luxury. The surroundings are beautiful, we didn't have the best weather but still made great use of the hot tub and outside area. Amazing place, can't wait to go again.