Kingfisher Barn, 5 Barley Bridge, Staveley, Staveley, Cumbria, LA8 9PQ

The location of Kingfisher barn is perfect- on the edge of the village, with beautiful countryside views, a river, and easy access from M6 and to get to different areas of the Lake District. Staveley is a lovely village, and with good amenities - shop, pub, butchers, pharmacy, amazing coffee shop and bakery near the brewery- a short walk from apartment. Kitchen facilities were good (when worked!), although no dishwasher. HOWEVER, we had several issues with the property, which resulted in it not meeting our expectations, and spoiling our holiday somewhat, plus adding a lot of unnecessary stress. As soon as we arrived it was apparent that the apartment needed a long awaited deep clean- there was a dirty odour in the apartment and there were large food crumbs visible all over the seats of the settee and armchairs!! I had to hoover these as soon as we arrived before we could sit down! Although the kitchen was clean on the surface, there were a few items which had not been washed up properly- including the plastic chopping board in the cupboard with dried food on it (which I therefore left without using all week!). We washed the mugs and cutlery ourselves before using as did not feel comfortable to use otherwise. The grubbiness worried us to the extend that we would not even put our bags on the floors, but kept up on surfaces! Upon arrival the boiler was not working and had a red warning triangle, so there was no hot water. We had to contact Sykes cottages whom arranged for an engineer to come round- whom fixed the issue that day. However, we were unable to have the showers we had hoped for upon arrival after travelling for 11 hours. The hand towel for the downstairs toilet was folded up on top of the toilet seat (instead of hung in the towel ring)!! Not great for drying hands as then adding a whole new layer of germs! The bath did not appear very clean and had hairs, and bits in the bath, and watermarks on taps. Again, we had to clean the bath too before using. There were cobwebs down side of bedside cabinets and in some corners. However, luckily the beds did appear clean, as at this point we were contemplating not staying. The highchair in the corner of lounge (which we were not using as a group of 3 adults) was dirty , and the cover of the travel cot in corner of lounge (again obviously not using) was thick with dust. The next issue was that the fridge was not working, which we did not notice until a couple of days in. We were given a free standing fridge on day 2 but lost £54 worth food in the non-working fridge! As we had a big Tesco order arrive the morning after our arrival we had planned our meals and the fridge was full- we ended up spending extra having to eat out one night and eating cheaper more basic food which we had to shop for the rest of holiday. Our £54 lost has been repaid by Sykes for which we are grateful, but our whole holiday was spoilt with the issues we had. I would not recommend, or visit this accommodation again unless it has a complete deep clean and update of carpets/flooring. Very disappointed and such as shame as was looking forward to our first holiday in 3 years- and this place could be made so nice, and clean!!.