Avington Lakes

The photos on the website/listing are nothing like the experience offered. The 3 bedroom house shouldn’t be included in the offering as it’s not even in the estate grounds and you only have 3 hours per day to walk around the grounds and you need to message someone to ask permission to enter. The experience doesn’t feel very warm, especially for £500 per night. Rihanna (or the lady who greets you) was very lovely though.

The dishwasher was left unloaded when we arrived and there were dead flowers in vases.

Nothing! Maybe just would be better if a bit more kindling was provided :)

Funny smell in room bin was left full

There was no lighting on the decking, and so you couldn't see when walking to and from the hot tub at night. Only supplied with 2 coffee pods and the coffee cups supplied didn't fit under the coffee machine.

Hot tub heated by fire - but couldn’t get the fire going despite many attempts!
Lack of hot water- intermittently give hot water on an electric pump.
Could only get hold of the staff on what’s app , no
Reply on the mobile - which was a bit frustrating.

I appreciate the Elizabethan apartment is meant to be old, however there is no excuse for blown light bulbs, wasps and flys in the apartment (alive and dead in the window ledges) picture hooks just left on the side and the extractor fan on the oven: job not working, it's some of the worst Accomodation I've stayed in.
The shower also couldn't get hot, it was warm at best, and the heating hadn't been on for sometime, it took 2 days to heat the apartment up.
All in all, just uncomfortable and felt like a rip off.

We stayed in the lodge and it was lovely. Comfortable 3 bedrooms and lovely morning view of the fields and horses

A couple of extra things need to be added to the handover cleaning list - we found a huge spiders web in the skylight curtain, and the windows were quite dirty.

Would have been great for the price to have some extra luxury touches eg. Robes, breakfast hamper, bath salts/bubble bath

Nothing

Dass gewisse Sachen defekt waren wie z.B. Griff vom Gartentor, Haustüre, Kühlschranktüre

The place is outrageously priced. Our room had freezing water and the kids just screamed when we showered them, even when we asked them to take care of the problem, they didn't. There was a smelly dishwasher waiting for us in the room, full of dishes, no conditioner, and even though we asked them to, they didn't fill it. You should note that there is nothing to eat in the hotel or its surroundings so know that in advance. The bedrooms are very small and you could barely move around in them. The place itself is very beautiful but poorly managed, which is a real shame.

Poor communication, which staff blaimed on Booking.com. I have used Booking.com freequently and not had communication problems with other hosts.
Overgrown/weedy and a bit shabby around shepherds hut.
We couldnt get into accommodation until 40mins post check-in time as cleaner was still cleaning when we arrived. No explenation of where we could or couldnt go around grounds, poor direction signposts within grounds, like sign pointing to kitchen garden, which now just appears to be a weedy overgrown path to a log cabin where other guests were staying. Couldn't find signage to sauna and outdoor puersuits area. Main entrance gate not working nor manned on arrival with queue on road to get in.. one person in queue was Avington staff, even she didnt know how to get in. Considering price of shepherds hut, very dissapointed with just two meesley coffee pods, c 4 teabags and tiny amount of longlife milk. Despite dog being booked in, no dog bowls, mat/bed, no welcome doggy treat. There was also a crazy amount (as in 8 dinner plates) of crockery, with no space left for own food and belongings. Fortunately we had no intension of using hot tub as the area didnt look very safe, with branches overhanging tub and rubbing against chimney. We also had no idea of where to find any staff with any queries we had.

One of the bedrooms has no window you can open and even with the fan provided it was incredibly stuff and hot. In that same room was the boiler which fired up every forty seconds throughout the night. This was mentioned to staff only to be told “they are aware of it and there’s nothing that can be done”. This would have been nice to know in advance.
In the lead up to the stay getting to speak to staff and get answers to e mails was very hit and miss.