“Stayed for one week in Benfield with parents and our toddler.”
We SO wanted to love this place after the great reviews on here and the pretty pictures. However, as charming as the cottage was, we couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed with a few elements.
Let’s start with the good stuff. As I said, the cottage is utterly charming and the rural decor makes it welcoming and cosy. The downstairs space is great – it was nice to have ‘zones’, so in a big group you can separate off either into the front room, the dining area or the conservatory. They’re connected enough to not be isolating, so you can still chat from each room, but you’re not all cooped up in one communal area.
The beds were really comfortable. As other reviews have commented, the road is busy and noisy, making it impossible to open the windows on a hot evening, but with some ear plugs, the less light sleepers among us had a good night’s sleep.
The location was perfect for enjoying the many delights the Cotswolds has to offer. We did way more than we anticipated because there was so much on the doorstep and Stow-on-the-Wold itself is gorgeous, with lots of pretty little shops and some great pubs.
On the downside, the courtyard area was unclean. Not sure when it was last swept, but the paving was dirty and the bench and cushions were filthy - making it pretty unappealing to sit out there. It’s such a shame because it could be a really great addition to the house, but at the moment it’s a real waste of the space. A large chunk of it is taken up by the Wheelie bin, which itself wasn’t quite big enough for a week’s worth of rubbish for a group of seven. Appreciate space is limited, but it could’ve been better organised. Maybe some housing around the bin. There was also no recycling bin, so everything ended up in one place.
We didn’t expect there to be an Aga and no traditional oven (there’s a microwave, and mini oven in the pantry). While it was very beautiful, we had to rethink our evening meals somewhat and it made the downstairs area very hot on a warm summer’s day (it’s not advisable to turn off as it takes such a long time to heat up again). There was a wide array of crockery, utensils and cookware in the kitchen, but quite a few hadn’t been washed properly.
The bathroom on the first floor has a beautiful roll top bath, but only a handheld shower head with no curtain or screen. So no matter how careful you were, the bathroom got soaked with water splashing either off the bath or your body. The bathroom on the second floor had such a low wattage bulb in it, we had to keep the door open to see what we were doing.
We had a good experience with the owner - very prompt responses - and we were very grateful to be allowed to check in an hour early, but on the whole the cottage itself is currently a bit disappointing in places.
Thank you for taking the time to feed back on your stay at Benfield. It's good to hear that the majority of things in the property were suitable for your party and you were able to use the cottage as a great base to explore the Cotswolds.
Thank you for bringing to our attention the issues you encountered with the outside space, dirty crockery and waste disposal. This has been passed on to our maintenance and housekeeping teams and will be rectified for future guests. We really do appreciate these issues being highlighted as, of course, we seek to make the cottages as perfect as possible for all guests.
Property Owner
