Host & Stay - Applegarth House

Nicely presented on the whole. Nice pretty garden. Attractive living room and comfortable walk-in shower. Tasteful decoration. Nice large fridge freezer. Place was reasonably clean and clutter free inside. Working gas fire. They did have a dishwasher with tabs. Fairly well equipped kitchen except for steamer.

The tap was broken badly in the kitchen and the drain smelled bad as if a plumber was overdue. In fact he arrived the morning we were leaving on the dot of 10am - no wriggle room given at all despite us requesting a bit of extra time due to a disabled and elderly adult. They might want to allow a bit of grace period as standard it was very awkward to have him and the cleaner arrive as we were just finishing up. A very awkward and unecessarily stressful 10 minutes. We had to deal with the last guests overflowing bins all week, which were not collected on the alloted day and were attracting rats. My parent's bedroom window opened onto these bins. No discount was offered for our inconvenience. My bed in the master room was not comfortable it was far too soft and saggy in the middle as others rightly warned me of. My parents said theirs was OK. Their "starter pack" was pathetic (this is what they called it when I complained). There was the tiniest bit left of a bottle of Fairy washing up liquid, only 1 full loo roll and it was rubbish 2ply, no washing machine tabs, no kitchen roll, no salt, only a 30 ml shower gel sachet and a 30ml shampoo sachet and 6 teabags and all of this was for 5 adults for 5 nights. Do not rely on there being enough toiletries, kitchen basics and basic hygiene supplies for your stay. This place has great potential but unfortunately these details matter. I suggest in addition to fixing the tap that they improve their starter pack, replace the mattresses, and make sure bins are collected in the future by ensuring that previous guests do not leave them overflowing. Also a minor detail but the request to wipe water off the window ledge in the shower after showering as well as being disgusting to someone like me with OCD is also impractical because it is the only place to put shampoo etc. since there is no shower caddy.

Roomy and light with a nice garden. Kitchen is good with plenty of equipment.

The house was beautiful, big and spacious with lovely fireplace in the living room. Beautiful garden and ample parking space in driveway. Lots of plates and cutleries and enough pots and pans to cook with. I would have given this place a 9 if their service was better.

We arrived late at night after a long drive and discovered there was nothing in the bathroom, no soap much less shampoo to shower with. There's also no coffee/ tea provided. And nobody to attend to your problems on Sunday. Communication is only during office hours. Out of those hours, they ask you to email. And if you email your problems, they answer on the next working day which doesn't help at all. This house is also quite far from the city. If you don't have a car, the bus stop is quite a distance away and the service erratic. You may have to wait for hours for a bus.

We were self catering, so no breakfast provided. Location was perfect for visiting relatives nearby with easy access to the city. Local shop on the corner was handy as was the superstore a short distance away. Bungalow was comfortable and warm.

Struggled with using the smart TV but maybe because we mostly watch live TV programmes which we could only find on the BBC Iplayer.