Sibton Park Estate Reception - Wilderness Reserve — Attraction in East Suffolk

My husband and I stayed for a week at Mawthers on the Chapel estate for the first week of September. Our key criteria were total peace and privacy, and the enjoyment of a private pool and spa bath. Mawthers fit the bill, being remote and private from other dwellings with all the facilities we needed. We paid £14,400 for the week. A large sum, but we were willing to pay for our very precise needs. ||We used the service of a third party company to find us a venue to meet our criteria. Eventually the agent came up with Wilderness Reserve, and we booked it through her. We did not at any time engage in further assistance from this agent other than finding the venue, and intended no further communication with her. We never had a conversation with Wilderness Reserve regarding an ongoing relationship with this agent, as there wasn't one as far as we were concerned. ||We transferred the initial deposit to WR , over £7,000. Several days later we had received no acknowledgement or receipt for this large sum. If I buy teabags at Tesco I receive a receipt, but WR clearly didn't even consider it necessary to acknowledge receipt of thousands of pounds. I contacted my allocated contact at WR to ask if they had indeed received the payment. We exchanged several emails, and at one point my email wasn't replied to for a few days so I used WhatsApp to let off steam about poor communications. I subsequently received an apology, claiming an 'IT problem', and a copy of my financial statement.||To my absolute shock I saw that my personal, private, financial statement didn't have my details on at all, but had the name and email address of this third party agent. Clearly they sent her my private information despite not even having the courtesy to acknowledgeable receipt of payment to me personally. I then discovered that they had actually discussed with this same third party the details of my private conversation complaining about lack of communication. I knew this because she replied to them by email and copied me on the email. ||This is absolutely shocking behaviour and I told them so, citing a breach of data protection. ||Following on from this, I was fully aware that the final payment was due 6 weeks before the date. The payment day came and went, and I still received no request for payment. After several days I chased them up via my contact person at WR, who eventually sent me the payment details, saying her delayed response was due to her being off for a few days. So, nobody covers for someone when they are off for a few days ? Shambolic and totally unprofessional. I started the transfer. Didn't work. They'd given me the wrong name to make the transfer. I chased again, and eventually got the correct details. Well done! ||You really couldn't make this up. An organisation of this alleged quality, charging huge sums of money, were reliably and consistently incompetent. Their accounts personnel (do they have any?) need to be sacked, and their communications are a joke at best and non- existent at worst.||Next - I chose to have only one housekeeping visit during the week to preserve our promised peace and privacy. However, at the 11th hour we were advised that someone would come EVERY day to do pool maintenance. I objected to this. Only myself would use the pool daily, and my husband may possibly have a dip (he's 80 so not exactly a swimming athlete). I insisted a visit every day was ridiculous. I received a reply saying that it was a 'legal requirement' to clean the pool daily. A lie, quite frankly, clearly designed to shut me up. I did some research and very quickly discovered that there is no legal requirement at all to clean public pools to a set schedule. The requirement is for a risk assessment to be carried out and a schedule arranged at an appropriate level to maintain the pool to a required level of cleanliness. I copied these details to WR asking how they concluded that a pool used by one obsessively clean 8 stone person, and possibly a couple of dips by her husband, resulted in a need for daily cleaning. We eventually agreed just 2 early morning visits. I don't like being patronised with an assumption that I'm too stupid to investigate matters myself.||We arrived and went to let reception know we would be popping to Waitrose and would return in an hour. The reception staff appear to comprise a handful of young '20 something' women who clearly think their role is to be be very casual, 'chummy' and gushing. A bit of slick professionalism and respectfullness was rather more in order when someone is paying over £14,000 for a week's stay, and is old enough to be their grandmother. Two of them gushed at me and delivered 'ah, bless' several times. Not sure why I need blessing so much, particularly as I'm atheist. Then I was actually called 'Dear'. I gritted my teeth and went to Waitrose. On my return I got another gush.....'how was Waitrose! '. I gave a withering look and replied 'like a supermarket'. Yet another 'ah, bless'.||Finally, the property. Very nice property, very private, on a par with my own lovely home remote in the Welsh Uplands. But, additionally, it had the benefit of pool, spa etc, which is what we were paying for. We were escorted to the property. The key cards didn't work, so the young lady used her phone and brought new cards later. No offer to assist with baggage. We declined a 'tour'. I gave up on tours decades ago when I got sick to death of idiots wandering around saying 'this is the kitchen'. Really!? That cooker is a bit of a giveaway, or I'd have thought it was the bathroom. I'd also been driving for 7 hours, was completely shattered, and just wanted to sit down with a glass of wine and read the House Book explaining how everything worked. No housebook. Nothing. Searched high and low. I worked all over the world during my professional career, and have stayed in hundreds of hotels and rental properties. I can't recall a single place I've stayed that didn't have a room or property book with essential information. We grappled for ages to open the sliding doors onto the decking, which then wouldn't close, and resorted to calling maintenance. The lightswitches challenged us for a good couple of hours. We completely gave up on the combined washer/ dryer, even after downloading a user manual, as there was no documentation for any of the equipment either. When housekeeping came later in the week, they didn't have a clue either, so pulled out a wire clothes dryer for us to use. ||The kitchen was a bit lacking. What was there was very good quality - Dualit, Bosch. A basic set of good quality (Hexclad) pans. A small tart tray and mixer. (Who goes on holiday and spends time making tiny tarts?). There were a couple of flat baking trays and two huge roasting pans, clearly designed for people who like to cook half a dead animal to eat, which we don't. Nothing smaller. Nothing to roast a few vegetables for two. No flan or pie dish. No gratin dishes. No casseroles. I checked online that the Hexclad pans were ovenproof , and used those in the oven, although bigger ones wouldn't go in with the handle. No milk, as promised in the fridge (half a pint apparently, which I thought was a bit petty). Fortunately we had brought some. The toaster, for some odd reason was squirreled away in the back utility, so I brought it into the kitchen. The hob had several marks on it, and there was no hob cleaner, so I bought some and it came up like new. ||No instructions on which of the recycling bins was for which items, due to no House Book. Nowhere to put bottles, of which we had many, so we left them on the front porch. ||There was a big problem with flies. Hundreds of them. Sadly, inevitable when you have a property surrounded by lovely woodland and a lake. Totally out of the control of WR of course, and little they can do about it really. We found four half used cans of fly spray under the sink and used them all. When you opened a cupboard, hoards of the things came out. We got them largely under control, but of course everything was covered in fly spray and dead flies. ||The decor was weird. Whilst individual items were no doubt good quality, it looked like someone had just grabbed items of furniture and fittings totally randomly and chucked them all together. There was no theme, no matching in either colour or style, and no sync between anything. And there was far too much furniture both inside and out. Mawthers sleeps 6 people. In the lounge there were two very modern armchairs, two plump stuffed armchairs with a slightly eastern vibe, and a large lemon and pale blue sofa with fluffy lemon cushions. Also two largish marble tables, and 3 small ones. The wall lights are hideous, but a matter of taste admittedly. The central lighting, comprising three very low hanging white balls are a health and safety hazard. Getting up from the sofa one evening and navigating multiple tables to go to the fireplace, I smacked my head on one quite hard. I'm just 5'2", which indicates how low they are. Also, when watching the TV at a distance from the kitchen whilst preparing dinner, the balls obscure large sections of the screen. They need to be raised at least a foot. And the interior designer needs to go on a few courses. ||The fireplace, for some bizarre reason, is surrounded by a huge roaring face of an ogre, with staring eyes and a gremlin ripping at his beard! Why ? I'd bet my life savings that any young child staying in the property would have serious nightmares.||8 chairs in the kitchen, for 6 people, and multiple chairs and a long bench causing an obstacle course on the decking, which further hindered opening the doors. ||To finish with a few good points. Bathrooms were very good. Good strong showers. Very clean. Comfortable beds. Lovely pool and spa, although they both need a small, discreet rail to provide something to balance yourself when getting in and out. My husband was too worried to attempt balancing his way down the steps into the pool, so I dragged a lounger over to one corner for him to stabilise himself. We both got in and out of the spa via a towel spread on the floor which we had to get down onto and slide in. ||Endless supply of quality coffee pods and teabags, loads of dish tabs and laundry tabs, and a nice bottle of fizz in the chiller. ||Well, that's enough I think. Would I go again?. No, but I don't regret going once. It...

We stayed in Tin Lizzy for a short break. The positives were it was quiet and peaceful, the staff were very friendly, the property was reasonably well equipped. The hot tub and little rowing boat lake were lovely to look at and there was a sauna although we did not use the sauna. We have stayed in a range of quirky places and this is an enjoyable location and stay but the price point is out of kilter for what you are getting. On reflection we should have used the property as a base and eaten out in nearby villages and done day trips instead of looking to the Wilderness Reserve for entertainment and food as this greatly increased the cost of the short break and this is where the venue fell down in our view. ||The negatives were:| 1. I specifically rang to ask about portion sizes and how much was reasonable to order for a family of 4 from the BBQ menu, charcuterie, breakfast hampers and sandwich menus explaining we would have a sandwich lunch for example and then what would we need for supper. Having taken advice on quantities, we ended up with far too much food. We bought some home and had it for three days post the trip, but at least half went in the bin as there was such an excess. The food is very expensive and it felt like we had been substantially oversold. The food was delicious, particularly the charcuterie and BBQ, but the volume was more than double what was reasonable and a huge waste.|2. We paid for the treasure trail which was also expensive as it is a per head cost. Prior to booking I spoke with our coordinator to ask if it was suitable for a dog to join us (if not we would book for a smaller number of participants) and the coordinator took time to check and then got back to us to confirm it was suitable for a dog to join the family. The trail started and ended with an electric fence which the poor dog was electrocuted by as the guide did not turn off the electricity just saying it was okay for the dog to enter! At one part of the trail we were supposed to walk across a wooden bridge which is narrow (width of one plank of wood) and has only a high hand rail but not proper sides so there are large gaps to the water below. Our dog was not able to manoeuvre herself onto the single plank. It was totally unsuitable for dogs (and not just ours but others out walking also had to do u-turns when encountering the plank bridge) so we had to turn back. At the end of the treasure trail there was excellent treasure (a hamper with wine, chocolates etc which is no doubt why the cost is high) but the trail was somewhat spoilt by the electrocution and bridge. |3. The site is said to be dog friendly, but in contrast to other dog friendly places we have stayed there was absolutely nothing provided for the dog - no dog poo bags, no bowls, no dog bed, no dog treats, no spare lead, absolutely nothing and there are no fences nor a point to for example attach a long line lead. This was not a huge issue as the dog was well behaved and the coordinator did inform me of this just before we arrived so I had time to bring all those items with us. |4. Not necessarily a negative, but the property had wi-fi but no television which was odd for the price point. ||I expect that if you are attending the Wilderness Reserve for a big event with lots of family and friends it would be a great place, but for a break just for a family we would have been better off in a luxury holiday rental elsewhere. We used the hot tub, played tennis, went for walks and did the treasure trail but there was a lack of things to do unless you are happy to pay large sums for extras. There is an outdoor pool which is cleverly landscaped but sadly it was too cold to use...

Spent a weekend at the Wilderness Reserve after many months of anticipation. The resort was recommended to us by friends so we were very much looking forward to the visit. We had to move our booking once due to illness so it had been a long time coming. What struck us during the initial booking and subsequent re-schedule was the fact that we were contacted with irritated regularity by different event managers asking to upsell their add on events. I’d already declined them yet had a continuous flow of mails arrive in my inbox. Had my preference just been noted in a central booking system, this could have been avoided.|When we got close to our re-scheduled stay, we were told that the cottage we were supposed to be staying in was not ready yet. We were relocated to another lovely cottage so were happy with the pivot. However, the marketing mails kept coming again.|The only one thing we were interested in was making use of the e-cars they had on offer. We were asked to sign a loan form, provide all manner of info, all of which required a fair amount of logistics (printing documents off, scanning drivers licences etc). It was all worth it though as we were confirmed use of one of the BMW’s for the duration of the weekend. 24 hrs later, we were told that unfortunately the car would not be available after all!|This was very disappointing and could have been avoided had back office coordination been better. |As part of the last minute relocation to another house, we were offered a complimentary breakfast hamper, which we had to remind them off in writing before our visit as it was not mentioned in the pre-check in summary document. |On the day, the “hamper” was a loveless selection of individual items lined up on the kitchen counter. Nothing like what was depicted on the website (Whicker basket). |It felt very low effort and not in keeping with the exclusive and luxury experience the resort is pushing for on their socials.|We also confirmed in writing and twice in person on checking in, that we preferred not to make use of the daily housekeeping service. We were happy to just be left alone and clean up after ourselves in favour of some un disturbed time to relax.|This was confirmed (in person) just to clearly not have been passed on as appropriate, as 12 hrs later, the cleaning crew showed up just as we were about to use the jacuzzi.|We also felt like there was a distinct lack of communication and detailed overview of what maintenance was going to be happening during our stay. Just as we were having an afternoon nap on the decking area, a gentleman walked onto our patio to check the jacuzzi. This took us very much by surprise. Had we known about this being a possibility, we’d not have been so spooked by someone in our private space. A simple text message/ call prior to his visit, would have been nice. Or an advance notice when we were shown around the cottage!|In summary, the resort is unique and offers a great escape to the country side, but we felt let down and disappointed by the lack of follow up on our requests and disconnect behind the scenes. It felt lacking in real care for individual travellers. We got the distinct feeling that this place focuses on weddings and corporate bookings and that individual stays were not afforded the care and attention the price tag would...