The Old Stables, 5-7 High Street, Lyndhurst, Lyndhurst, Hampshire, SO43 7BB

Big house quite a few rooms but a let down and dirty and tired [Added at Editor's discretion since it appears to be a helpful review and the reviewer has been authenticated]

Having read other reviews I was slightly concerned as to what The Old Stables would be like. We were a group of 22, ages from 8 - 80, looking for a 4-night half-term break. The Old Stables ticked all the right boxes regarding number of rooms, travelling distance and location, so we booked. Nearing the time of our stay, communication did get difficult, however, I finally made contact with Nic, who put my mind at ease that everything was okay. On arrival The Stables were bright, clean, warm and welcoming. The 12 bedrooms offered us a varied combination of twins, doubles,triples and family rooms.The beds were comfortable, the bed linen clean and all rooms had an effective radiator. The large lounge seated all of us easily on comfy sofas and the log fire gave a lovely ambience to the room. A television, DVD player and projector were also provided as well as a grand piano! The kitchen was well equipped with enough glasses, plates, cutlery, pots and pans and utensils and the appliances were all in good working order. (Fridges, freezers, cookers, hobs, dishwasher, microwave, toaster and washing machine) It was lovely to all be able to sit around the long kitchen table and eat together. The Stables was warm and cozy and we had plenty of hot water. The location is fantastic; a walk to the shops with cafes, pubs, exhibitions, visitor centre, tourist information and a stroll to take you straight into the New Forest National Park itself. A short drive to other places of interest such as the New Forest Wildlife Park. Berties provided excellent fish and chips - a short walk to collect.A supermarket delivery of food enough for 4 days was a brilliant idea! (Ordered 2 days before we left and delivered to our door on arrival). If you have a large, wide-age range group of people, who all want to do different activities, The Old Stables, Lyndhurst is the place to go, as it offers something for everyone and is good value for money.

Please disregard any previous bad reviews on The Old Stables. After an initial worry about not being able to get in contact with Halcyon Cottage Holidays to find out about arrival instructions, I eventually received email contact and it transpired that I should have received my arrival instructions after paying the final balance.

We initially visited The Old Stables in May 2013 prior to booking as we were a group of 24 (12 couples of family and friends celebrating my husband's 60th birthday, ages ranging from 6 months through to 60 ish). Although we were viewing the house after a previous group had just left, we did feel the house did look rather scruffy. However, due to the number of people, there didn't seem any other options as we wanted to be in the New Forest area.

What a lovely surprise we had when we walked through the door! The whole place had been decorated and the heating was on so everywhere was nice and warm. There are 12 bedrooms which range from having two beds to five beds in each room. All beds slept in were very comfortable and all had very white and good quality duvet covers, sheets and pillow cases.

There was originally a dormitory style room which had 8 beds, but this has now been divided into 4 rooms, each with 3 beds allowing more privacy, although they are open at the top of the walls.

We had plenty of brand new crockery and a whole range of glasses - champagne, wine, half pint and one pint glasses. Also plenty of cutlery and cooking utensils.

The one problem we did have was that one of the ovens did not work (there are 2 cookers). Having said that, we did cope and produced a full English breakfast and a 3 course celebration meal. We have reported this to the owner who immediately replied that he would look into it.

All the entertainment equipment worked fine and a basket of logs was provided for the fire.

The kitchen area has a new long table and plenty of chairs, so was great for everyone to eat together. The seating in the lounge area was also great for a large group.

There is also plenty of parking area - we easily fitted in 12 cars.

The Old Stables is perfectly situated in the High Street, so brilliant for restaurants/takeaway/shops. The Passage To India provided a great takeaway feast for us all which was great considering it was Valentines Day. Don't miss the Ferrari showroom at the other end of the High St. Also at that end of the High St is easy access to forest walks.

We certainly would recommend The Old Stables and would have no qualms in booking again.

Very simply put, this place is a huge let down after seeing the images on the Halcyon website. It is not cheap to hire, on the contrary, for the money we expected much more. The place is dirty, the carpets are old, sticky and filthy, including the rugs. There was not even a coffee table in the living room, seriously. The chairs on the website picture where not the same as the ones in the picture in the kitchen. There were stains, some unmentionable on the duvets, although this wasn't noticed until the bed linen (which was thankfully clean) was taken off at the end of our stay. Overall the place had a distinct feeling of being unloved and uncared for. We were a party of 14 and some people had flown in from abroad, so it was a bit disappointing that if felt so unloved. The kitchen utensils, glasses and plates looked like they were a job lot from a jumble sale, they were so mis-matched it was ridiculous. Outside there were bricks and building sand and dead plant pots. The overall impression was poor. We get together as a group twice a year and have always been back to locations. We will never use Halcyon or the Old Stables again.

Although this accommodation was the perfect size for our gathering and it was lovely that we could all sit around one table together one oven was not working, the power supply cable to this cooker fed through a hole knocked through a plaster board panel (not safe) and according to other reviews it was not working a year ago either. The cleanliness was appauling, the living area and bedrooms had not seen a hoover for years let alone a duster, the spiders had been there a very long time as there was cobwebs and dust everywhere. One of the bedroom windows did not open at all (as per another review a year ago)and despite all of this was very expensive and not good value for money and certainly not 3 star accommodation. It was DIRE.

We had a really good mid-week break at the Old Stables. On most of our previous big family holidays we've found "Max. number of persons" actually means if you pull out old sofa beds or have 10 to a room. Here there are 9 bedrooms, no sofa beds, and 5 bathrooms. The cottage was clean and spacious, and the kitchen was well-equipped with crockery, cutlery, cooking utensils etc. It was excellent value, especially as the rental price included all gas/electricity and we needed the heating on constantly as it was such a chilly week!

The huge lounge was perfect for all the family to fit in and we enjoyed watching movies on the big screen. All in all a successful week and I would certainly recommend.

At first, I was a bit worried after reading reviews of the place. When we got there, all my worries went away. Although the place isn't as pictured, which is understandable because it wasn't built just yesterday, it was cozy. The group enjoyed their stay. Everything we need for a one week stay is provided. The place is warm, relaxing, and the place(lyndhurst), is beautiful. The place may need general cleaning but otherwise, it was tidy. Customer service- maybe a bit hard to reach them by phone but they answer very quickly with any email inquiries. Will definitely come back to halcyon, maybe try their other locations.

We went on our usual annual family get together to the Old stables in Lyndhurst, mixed ages ranging from little ones to grandparents.

Whilst the location and size of the property is good for large groups

what a disappointment when we went inside.

Dont know who the cleaners are but they must have very low standards as we had to clean when we got there. My daughter in law has taken photos as proof. As the person who made the previous review said it was NOTHING like the pictures led you to believe. Admittedly the bedding was clean but the beds were uncomfortable, mattresses needed badly replacing as springs were coming through.

Kitchen appliances, apart from dishwasher were VERY old and filthy and one oven didnt even work, to be honest they should have been replaced years ago. We didnt even want to put any food in one of the fridges only used it for cold drinks. The kitchen cupboard doors are made of fabric and are stained and cannot be wiped down. The large kitched table which does seat many, is chipped and care needed to be taken not to rip clothes.

Am sure health and safety would be an issue too as am sure all the appliances should have proof of recent testing.

The covers on the settee needed washing and as for the carpet on the stairs dont think this had seen a clean for ages - you certainly did not want little ones running around without slippers...

The rooms furthest from the kitchen, which I believe was perhaps a converted garage, were damp and one bedroom didnt have a window that opened, therefore there was a musty smell.

This is an expensive property to rent and the owners need to spend money on improvements big time. This property clearly is not inspected and I shall be sending a formal complaint to Halcyon holiday cottages as I feel some compensation should be offered.

I would like to add we had an enjoyable week with our family and the weather was kind so all was not lost.

Absolutely lovely accommodation for 24 odd friends staying for the bank holiday weekend in the New Forest. Loads of space for dining, loads of space for hanging out in the living room and perfect location in the village.

I booked this cottage for a surpise 60th Birthday celebration for my husband and 16 friends/family and was so disappointed the minute I opened the door as it looked nothing like it had in the photos on the website. The place had obviously been "dressed" for the pictures with modern decor, fresh bedlinen, nice glasses and crockery - the reality was very different. The whole cottage was very scruffy with old stained linen, a really poorly equipped kitchen with not even the most basic essentials. How the cottage was meant to cater for 30 I don't know as there wasn't even enough cutlery/glasses for 18 of us, with very old mis-matched plates etc which were mostly dirty. We discovered why when we tried to use the dishwasher, which was broken. There were two very old ovens, one of which did not work, neither did one of the toasters, which tripped the electrics.

The main bedroom did not have a curtain and given this overlooks a school and could be viewed from the high street, was a little embarassing! One of the showers did not work properly and the mattresses in some of the rooms were so bad, people had to keep moving beds. The rooms at the end of the property were down a dark, dingy coridoor which smelt musty, had no central heating and did not have any windows as they seem to have been converted from a garage - it looked like a doss house and I felt really bad having to ask friends to sleep there.

This cottage is managed by Halcyon Holiday Cottages and I have since noticed the poor reviews they have for their other cottages, so our experience was not a one-off. The standard is extremely poor for the amount they charge.

To be fair they did send out an electician to repair the oven and the housekeeper put up a sheet at our bedroom window. I did recieve some compensation for the poor standard, but it cannot undo the fact that it spoiled a special occasion. I had to phone several times to get my refund and the compensation, to be told it had not been sent as my details had been deleted!