Ellen Cottage, Beech Grove, Burford, Oxfordshire, OX18 4DE

Stayed for a long weekend in January. At first glance the cottage appeared clean. We were in for a shock when we returned later that evening after dinner. The duvet cover and pillows were covered in multiple animal hairs. The duvet itself and pillow protectors were horrible with so many animal hairs. Utterly disgusting. The cottage advertised with Sykes is advertised as no pets allowed this is clearly not the case. We have stayed in cottages where pets are allowed and they have been super clean with no evidence of animals to be found, this sadly was not the case. Poor substandard housekeeping clearly carried out by someone with poor standards and no attention to detail. Had the room been checked this would not have been missed.

It was too late to ring anyone to rectify the matter. We rang in the morning and were assured that fresh linen would be delivered at 5pm. We changed our plans to ensure that we were back by this time.

After several phone calls to chase the linen delivery it finally arrived at 6.20pm. The delivery was made by a very unprofessional girl, who made no apology for the problem nor the delay. She in actual fact made no delay in advising me that she wasn?t here to hear my complaint or entertain our grievances. Her words ?she did not come here for this and was not taking any responsibility for it?. When questioned who she worked for she said Sykes and said that she worked in housekeeping. I have never encountered such rudeness or unprofessionalism. She even laughed when I questioned the filthy hairs on the actual duvet and pillow protectors. She even though it hilarious when I said I would be reviewed and uploaded photos. I always review properties, hotels and restaurants I have been to.

In most cases it is a very positive review. The company have said that the owner uses his own cleaners and also claim that they have made the owner aware of our complaint and that he is not willing to do anything. This is something I find unbelievable and feel that Sykes are responsible and have not informed the owner as they may loose their booking fee. This was a surprise weekend away. I appreciate things can go wrong and will occasionally go wrong but with professional people can be rectified by the actions taken thereafter. I would not recommend Sykes as their performance on this occasion was totally unprofessional and unbelievably poor.

It is incredibly rare for me to leave a negative review, I always try to be balanced, however, for Sykes and Ellen Cottage I will make an exception. If it were possible to leave zero stars I would. As a birthday treat for my wife I booked a 3 night star at Ellen Cottage in Burford, (Cotswolds). This was not a cheap weekend break, and with both my wife and I working for the NHS we were looking forward to a short break away, which we hadn?t been able to do for over a year. Everything looked clean and as expected on check-in at 6pm, but on returning from getting dinner we noticed pet hairs all over the bedding and duvet in the master bedroom. None of the emergency contact numbers worked, so we had to use what we could from other beds, even though they didn?t fit, which led to an uncomfortable night?s sleep. The next day we contacted Sykes who said they would get housekeeping out to put this right. As we were out for the day, and not able to easily get back to the cottage we agreed they would come round at 5pm. After a number of calls chasing, housekeeping finally arrived at around 6:30pm. The girl who came to the door saying she was from housekeeping was incredibly rude to my wife, saying she did come here for this, and actually laughed at my wife when she was explaining how annoyed she was with the situation, and that it had spoilt our trip. We then complained to Sykes who lodged a complaint and said they would look into it, and contact the property owner. To cut a long story short Sykes refused to accept responsibility for the state of the bedding, blaming the owner, who they said the cleaners worked for and advised us to contact the police to take our complaint further if we wished, at this point I almost lost the will to live, their suggestion being so ridiculous. They have now refused to look into it any further have closed our complaint without any compensation from themselves of the property owner. I will never use Sykes, of any of their affiliated organisations again, and I strongly suggest others don?t either. This cottage is available on other sites as well, so beware even though it says no pets this is not accurate and they do not carry out a high enough level of cleaning, and don't care that they don't.