“The barn is well equipped, tranquil, remote and the bluebell woods are lovely and the owner explained how to get to them.”
I did have a mixture of emails from Sykes Cottage that said towels and linen were included and then that they weren't included so I called the owner and she confirmed that towels were not included but bath mats were included - this did make me laugh as I don't think I have ever had to take bath mats to a cottage stay?! T Towels and linen were included too.
If you are concerned with security I would advise you to check first that the warped back door has been replaced.
Firstly, I understand that there is an energy/food crisis. We paid £1193 which £1126 was the cost of the rental which was for a 3 night stay. When we stayed at a converted barn back in 2021 (via Sykes Cottages) when we arrived there was a bottle of prosecco in an ice bucket and a welcome note, along with 6 fresh farm eggs (as they had chickens just as Breaches Barn did too), a freshly baked loaf and cooked brownies & we still tell everyone about this! This welcome was such a joyful one and really appreciated by us all! When we arrived at Breaches Barn there was nothing. We had to take our own towels.
I understand they are running a business and we would have used electric/gas whilst we were there (we were out every day and out on Saturday evening to see a show in Southampton) and linen would have to washed after we left but a 'welcome 6 fresh farm eggs/note' would have been a nice gesture out of their £1126 earnings.
The dishwasher has an intermittent problem. We saw the owner about this on Saturday morning. The owner did explain he knew nothing about dishwashers and kindly sent his son over to look at the dishwasher but by this time we had googled the make/model and it advised to run the cold water tap for 20 seconds in the kitchen sink once the dishwasher had been put on and the first time we did this it worked - happy days! However on the Sunday evening we had to mess around doing this for around an hour before we could get it to work.
So the dishwasher needs to be looked at.
My main gripe was the security of the property. We are 3 mature women who were having a break from our busy lives. Yes we all live in towns and we are aware that country folk have different ideas about locking up their properties. But this barn is a let property that has to be insured. The door from the lounge area that leads out to the rear garden/patio area has no lock and key slot and it had a bolt at the base of the door that was broken and the door has warped. We saw the owner about the back door at the same time we told him about the dishwasher. He explained that he never locks his own house and knows about the back door. He has paid a carpenter to get the wood back in January to make a new door but this still hasn't been done.
One of my friends has an anxiety problem about being burgled. So she slept upstairs. We had to barricade the back door with furniture and also upstairs where she was sleeping each evening to reassure her that we were safe but her reply was 'things do happen in the countryside with intruders/burglary'. So my friend had 3 bad nights sleep.
I think the advertising of the property should advise there is no lock on the back door as we would NOT have booked this cottage if we had known due to our friends issue. I did wonder that if the property had been burgled in the time when we were out that how our valuables would have been covered by the insurance?
Basically the door needs to be replaced and secured.
One of my friends said that if the back door was replaced and secured they would in the future rebook this property.
we are sorry for your concerns
The door has now been replaced after a very long wait for the carpenter to make it.
The dishwasher has been looked at and no problem was found so it is a mystery!
Please come and stay again.
Property Owner
