Somerset Self Catering cottage, Little Farthings, Dunster, sleeps 6

A house of two halves
I really wanted to like this property and give it a higher rating, but I can't. The house is indeed upside down, and upstairs has a big kitchen diner, a lovely, light and airy living room with comfy sofas and a dining table. The views were fabulous. Downstairs was three bedrooms and a bathroom. The house is built into a hill - and that is the problem as the back of the ground floor of the property is subterranean. The day we arrived it had been raining and the smell of damp on arrival was overwhelming. There was mould in the bathroom and clear evidence where mould had been recently removed in the back bedroom. Everything felt damp. We did complain and a lovely lady duly arrived saying that she had come to clean the bathroom. We explained that it wasn't really dirty as such, but mouldy and that it would need more than a bottle of bleach to fix the problem. We slept in damp beds and woke up to damp clothes. Towels left in the bathroom didn't dry and we were tumble drying them between showers. We tried to turn on the heating, but the thermostat is upstairs - and that was sunny and warm, and we couldn't get the radiators downstairs to come on. We left a day early as we saw no point spending yet another night there to leave in the morning. Looking at the other reviews, there is a fundamental problem that is ongoing - and it appears that there is no desire to address it. An industrial size dehumidifier might provide a short term fix. The property has huge potential, the surrounding countryside is beautiful, the damp is a real shame.
Georgina H
2020-09-12

Wet, Smelly, Damp and Filthy! Nobody Cared!
What went wrong? When we arrived the heating was off and the house stank of damp. The cleaners had just arrived and said they were "professionals" and would therefore finish the entire 3 bed detached cottage "in less than an hour"! This was correct, only it looked the same as when we arrived because they did very little cleaning in that hour. They did not even vacuum at all, probably because the vacuum was filthy and needed emptying - there was still the same dog hair everywhere so we cleaned up ourselves. Yes, we complained but Sykes and the owners were not interested and we have not received any compensation. The place was filthy, we removed bead bugs and piles of dead flies from all windowsills and evicted a cockroach from the kitchen. We hoovered the ceilings to remove lots of spiders of all shapes and sizes. The beds and bedding were damp and smelly, bedroom 3 was always cold with wet walls, the one and only bathroom was black with mould, damp and full of huge spiders. We saw no PAC test certificates, no fire safety certificates, no public liability insurance certificated. Above the law, Sykes and owners'?? The appliances are old and dirty, the dishwasher smelly. All the plug holes were blocked with gunk and hair. The hot water was scalding with no means of regulating the temperature, dangerous for children. The aged oil fired central heating boiler made a racket all night, but it did not smell so bad with the heating on. At lease it was on when required. Not a good experience, would not return.
CaronTusNua
2019-10-26

Great Location
We stayed at Little Farthings for a week. Although the house is great and has everything you need we were disappointed on our arrival to find the house very dirty, the house was clearly not ready for our arrival and I spent most of my time that evening cleaning as we obviously had to sleep there, we could not use the kitchen so we ate out that evening. We contacted the owner who arranged for the cleaners to come the following morning, which they did and cleaned the kitchen for us so we were able to use it. The house itself is lovely and there is a lovely pub just down the road and lots of nice walks and the locals were very friendly. The garden was very over grown but is very private which enables you to eat and sunbathe without been overlooked. Despite the disappointment when we arrived we enjoyed our holiday.
Hazel M
2018-07-31