The Pigsty

Reviews (2)

• Jonathan

  HOWEVER, there was definitely a lack of attention to the cleanliness, accumulated clutter and lack of kitchenware. Regards the cleanliness, in the showroom, there was a lot of black mould spots covering the wall where the toilet is, by the flush handle. (I have taken a photo, but see no option here to attach it). Also near the entrance to the shower, but outside of it, on the boxed in piping near the floor is a long streak of black mould (again, I have a photo). All this mould needs is a spray of the anti-mould cleaner which can be found in any supermarket. One spray and it will be gone. The tall radiator next to the toilet was covered in brown marks from bottom to half way up. This could be rust or, I hate to say it, splash-back from the toilet. I didn't like to try wiping it away. Whichever this is, it needs sorting as it's very unsightly, especially as this is where the bathroom towels are hung to dry (I have a photo). In the kitchen, it was bizarre there were about twenty knives, forks and spoons overfilling the drawer when the property only sleeps four. Some of this cutlery was broken in half. Also a large carving knife had its tip severed off, which was in the drawer ready to stick into a finger rooting around the cluttered drawer. That knife was also dirty (I have a photo of broken item and knife). Because there is no dishwasher (which didn't bother us at all), it means relying on the previous occupants to wash things properly. Unfortunately, this had not been done, and we had to wash some plates and glasses before use as they were dirty. We brought groceries with us, but couldn't put anything in the freezer compartment of the fridge because it was jammed full of opened boxes of ice lollies, I assume from last year. Why weren't these cleared out? We noticed from the guest book (which was full apart from one side of the last page) that it had occupancy in the months before us in January, so it wasn't as if we were the first ones in since the summer. We brought pizza with us for our first night but there were no baking trays to put them on. Luckily, we found a roll of foil amongst the clutter and had to cover the two oven shelves to use as a tray. There were lots of drinking glasses but a lack of hot drinking mugs. A couple of decent sized ones and I think a couple of smaller ones, but that was it. All so disproportionate. Also, the cupboards had old and part used jars and bottles of condiments and other weird things brought in by other people. These needed throwing out. The boiler cover was part pulled off and hanging which made it very noisy when the heating came on. (I have a photo). The dark grey bathroom towels were very old and faded. They also didn't smell fresh. I am sure they were clean, but they had that 'fox' smell of having been in the bottom of an airing cupboard unused for months. In the bedroom, the clothes drawers had loose plain wall lining paper in them. The lining paper in the top drawer had a disturbing very dark brown substance dried on it. I'm sure you'll come to the same conclusion as I as to what that is. Needless to say, we avoided using that drawer. (I have a photo). In the living area, the coffee table was a very large sheet of glass balanced on two ceramic elephants. Because it is hard to see when walking past or around it, three times we walked into it and dislodged the pane. I think that needs replacing because it's like a guillotine when that goes flying, and will take someone's feet off from the ankle if they're sitting on the sofa and that glass slides off into them. There was also a lot of clutter on the display shelves that needs looking through and throwing out. Lots of books, which is fine, but the sight of dog-eared and tatty Jilly Coopers and old cookery books saying it's now the 1990s, doesn't look good. Get new copies of the ageing books for a few pounds if you want to have them. Also lots of old magazines piled in a corner and shelving units just adds to the clutter that probably hasn't been touched in a very long time. Two jenga blocks were sat there too. Put them away with the rest of it, wherever that was. We went to Somerset to see if it was a place to move to with a holiday let. It turns out this county is not for us. But what staying in The Pigsty did was show us is how NOT to present a holiday let, and how much better it could be if only somebody took the time to go through it and sort through all the detritus. It was a lot of money for January for three nights, and while the the building in itself was prettily furnished etc, it lacked attention to detail with cleanliness and presentation. We understand it was on a working farm, which would be the owners' priority, which may be why its maintenance and care has not been addressed or even noticed. As mentioned, I do have photos which I can't attach here. If you want to see them, please get in touch. The above I have mentioned were glaringly obvious to us at first glance, and we did not go through it all with a fine toothed comb looking for problems, despite how this feedback reads. Basically, it was a pretty property but just massively let down by the lack of attention to it.

• Jonathan

  Thank you so much for their openness; it is a working farm and stables, and it was great for the children to meet the horses and dogs.