Anvil Cottage, Appleton Wiske

To anyone considering booking this property, I want to highlight some issues we encountered during our recent stay. The house is in need of serious updating. A lot of the furniture is old and worn, and the beds are very uncomfortable, all requiring new mattresses. Additionally, the outdoor area was not well-maintained, with broken decking and outdated garden furniture. The hot tub seemed to be the cleanest area of the property, but getting into it was risky due to a broken and splintered decking area including rusty step ladders. The pervasive oil smell throughout the property made it impossible to enjoy our time indoors. Even opening the windows and doors didn't alleviate the odor much. The property's smell was like it was soaked in turpentine, emitting from an oil fired boiler located in the utility room, where the games room adjoins it. The smell of fumes coming from the boiler was so strong that we were unable to enter the utility or games room. The main bedroom is directly above the utility where the oil fired boiler is located. At night with the windows and doors closed, the fumes were so strong that my eyes were stinging. I had an asthma attack, and both my husband and I felt extremely nauseous. Even our small dog seemed very lethargic with shallow breathing. The overall cleanliness did not meet our expectations, and the strong smell of fumes was unbearable. We entered the property at around 3:50 pm and left approximately 13 hours after arrival. The cost of the holiday was £690 for three nights. We have reported the issue to Sykes Cottages, who have been helpful. However, multiple attempts to contact the owner have led to frustration for both us and Sykes Cottages. The pictures advertised on the Sykes website show a marked difference to the property itself. We didn't receive the service as advertised. We are considering a chargeback through our credit card, as the owner seems not prepared to work with us and Sykes Cottages to come to an agreement. We have such a genuine concern about the oil heated boiler that we have contacted environmental health and citizens advice. It is crucial for me to highlight that we seldom leave reviews, but the health and safety issues we faced had a significant impact on our experience. These issues must be addressed for the benefit of future guests. It's not just our review; other guests have also reported similar disappointing experiences with this property.

The house is large but very dated. All furniture is old and falling apart. Beds are uncomfortable. New mattresses needed. Strong Oil smell throughout the house. Opened all windows to try and get rid of the smell but it didn’t help. Thankfully the weather was ok so we sat outside most of the time, however the garden furniture is also old and wobbly! Would not recommend, the house needs a refurb.

Stayed for the weekend for a friends 60 th birthday but feel Very disappointed. We had to muck in and clean the place to a standard that we are used too. Firstly a plate from the cupboard still with dried food on which was disgusting. There was dust under chairs in Front room, cobwebs, and the bathrooms were filthy. The outside decking was shabby. The biggest disappointment was the hot tub that we were unable to use as the the water was green! No chlorine to add. Spoilt the weekend. The steps to the hot tub were rusty and a health and safety hazard, the lid was damaged. This cottage needs updating but needs a thorough clean. Would not recommend it

Very dirty had to clean it ourselves. Booked for 60th birthday celebrations especially for use of hot tub, not for fit for purpose! Green water, ripped lid, unsafe steps. Very dissatisfied with no response from owner even up to 5 days later. Would not recommend. Needs a deep clean and decorate to bring up to better standards. Very pricey for extremely unhealthy, unbearable standards.

Just returned from a break with friends Very disappointed is an understatement We had to scrub the place clean first Thick dust under chairs in Front room, cobwebs everywhere and the bathrooms definitely were not clean. Then to the outside. The decking needs a repaint and TLC We booked this cottage as it had a hot tub however we couldn’t use it. The water was green! No chlorine to add. Spoilt our weekend. The steps to the hot tub were really rusty and the lid-well belonged on the tip. Full of holes and tears. After many phone calls to the host holiday company and owner we had no joy. So left without using the facility. The amount of money we paid was def not worth it

We have just returned from a stay at Anvil cottage. First the good. The house is warm and nicely decorated, very spacious and apart from the fact it is in need of some TLC facilities are good. Only one shower, the property sleeps 8 so that could do with changing, but we managed. Games room came in handy. The owner seemed lovely, dropped us in a bottle of wine for NYE. The bad - Now, I would just like to clarify that it was never my intention to leave a bad review. If I hadn't basically had my complaint thrown out without follow up I wouldn't have left this review but I feel people need to know. The beds are really uncomfortable, the mattresses have just about had it but we coped. On my last day I woke up with bites all down one side of my body, the side I sleep on. I presumed I had been coming down with something. I saw my GP who diagnosed Bed Bug bites. These bites were in clusters and presented text book like for bed bugs. I had no other symptoms. Later that day my husband noticed he also had bites in the same presentation, not as many as me but I think I must have fed the whole lot of them. On taking advice, we have destroyed our luggage on return as to not transport the bugs to our home. I emailed Sykes with my concern only to be told the owners declined they had bed bugs as the sheets were clean without even getting it checked out. My initial email was not to complain but to make them aware of a potential infestation that could get worse if not looked into. On researching these bugs I have found out that they live in the wood of the bed, in cracks in walls and in carpets, not only bedding. I also found out that others in the house could have been bitten but no symptoms. I am disgusted that this kind of thing can just be brushed under the carpet (literally!) without anyone checking it out. I would have been happy with an apology and a rest assured we are getting pest control in to check on it but nothing is getting done about it. If I was anyone thinking about staying here, I would contact Sykes first and ask if the situation has been resolved. I would like to say Sykes have been fab communicating with me but they cant force the owners to take action.

We were a party of 6 adults and 1 toddler. We had a really nice stay at Anvil cottage and would be happy to return as long as some of the issues we encountered were addressed. Starting outside in the garden (1) the decking in the hot tub area needs attention, it needs screwing down properly, sanding and repainting (my 2 year old granddaughter got spelks in her feet) (2) there weren’t enough chairs to sit on outside, luckily we took some of our own as we had planned a trip to the beach (3) you need to get rid of the ‘picnic table’ as it is very unsteady and not fit for purpose! Next issue is the en suite bedroom (1) it has no wardrobe so nowhere to hang clothes and the drawers need updating (2) the wet room drain needs attention as anytime we had a shower the whole floor flooded and the water took ages to drain away! It’s needs to just be a shower room and not a wet room! (3) the light fitting and toilet roll holder was rusty and needs replacing (all the toilet roll holders in the house were rusty). Next the bathroom, the plug in the sink wouldn’t stay in so the men couldn’t fill the sink up to have a shave and also the bath plug was rusty. The tv in the games room doesn’t work so don’t know why it’s there, I saw a previous review where someone mentioned this and thought it would have been addressed but sadly not! 4 out of 5 of the light bulbs in one of the lights in the lounge were not working, cooker hob light didn’t work, need more cooking utensils, wooden spoons, tongs, bbq equipment etc. Tie backs need sorting in the bedrooms as they don’t stay on and there was some paint peeling in the dining area. I know this sounds a lot of negativity however these are all minor things that wouldn’t take much rectifying and then we would have given it a 5 star rating but sadly at the moment it isn’t. However these things didn’t spoil our stay and we had a lovely relaxing week, the village is very quiet and there is a nice little park, basketball pitch and football field a couple of minutes walk away which we all enjoyed. Northallerton and Saltburn by the sea are not far and are a nice day out, it would be handy if there was a takeaway or fish and chip shop nearby but there was no information about these and we couldn’t find any. Overall we had a lovely stay.