The Bay Colwell — Attraction in Isle of Wight

Honest review. If I could give less stars I would. We've just left from 4 nights at this place and I'm so happy to be home to a clean environment and my own bed. We do not feel like we have been on a well rested holiday due to the accomodation. We stayed in cottage 42 which I can see people have previously complained about on here and TripAdvisor so the issues are clearly being ignored. The cleaning standards are less than poor here - grubby floor, crumbs on kitchen side still, thick dust!! The place looked very tired and it was! The sofa bed was vile, the shower head fell apart, we had a very clearly used toilet brush in the bathroom, the extraction didn't work in the bathroom, we had to bash the gate in every time we wanted to get in and out of the property, a piece of wood was supporting the middle of the sofa bed!! No outside light for the garden/hot tub, pitch black and the top step to get in the tub was very wobbly! The cooking pan was ancient! We discovered the next morning when the apple juice was warm that the fridge door didn’t shut so we had to chuck all our milk and meat! When I complained with this list of things to Reception the next morning, Candice, had an answer for everything! It wasn't until I pointed out to her that she lacked any empathy that she started to apologise. I told her that these cottages should not be listed as luxury as they are far from it and she responded that what made them luxury was that they had towels included which was laughable at this point!! She came to the cottage at 10am to make note of all the faults (which they already knew about clearly prior to our arrival) and to offer us a full refund and to leave site or to move cottages THAT day. She informed us a cottage was being cleaned as we spoke. We said the accomodation wasn't suitable for 4 adults and a child and we wanted both cottages so everyone had a proper bed to sleep in, she said she'd need to run it by management. In the meantime we were told maintenence would come fix the faults. They shaved the gate, tried to secure the tub step some more and made the fridge door better but still not the best suction. Everything else still the same. It wasn't until 3pm we heard anything!! To then be told we couldn't move until the following day! I demanded a refund for the first 2 nights along with the fridge items I had to buy again and that the next cottage best be clean and faultless! I was told the cottage would have a 'VIP clean' which would be a normal clean you'd expect basically. Thank you to Dann for the VIP clean. Cottage 47 was better as far as cleanliness but the sofa bed is still awful to sit on let alone sleep on! The cottages should not be sold for more than 4 people!! The place is a health and safety nightmare, the resort needs shutting down and a good inspection and some money spending on it. We had lovely days out on the IOW but our holiday was ruined by the handling of the complaint, the disappointment and the terrible sleeping arrangement. We were originally booked on a different Away Resort site with 3 bedrooms but moved to this one as our lodge had flooded apparently which I struggle to believe now. Regardless of the issues it was not a suitable replacement for us. Spend your money elsewhere. The customer care team came across like they couldn't care less - I told them people work hard to go on holiday and how upsetting our experience was for us. I saw Candice the next day after we moved and she had nothing to say about the lie we were told, no sorry, no is everything ok with your new cottage...Some training is clearly needed across the board and your standards of cleanliness raising...

For me, this resort could have easily scored 5 stars, if only for a few small niggles. The mattresses on all beds were shocking, but, we have since spoken to the manager, and have been assured that all cottages on site are having an interior refit in November (new mattresses, tables, chairs and sofas).

My other gripe was that there really ought to be an on site gym for people like me who think daily exercise is important. It wouldn't cost the earth, and for me, it would be a big plus.

In all other respects, this resort was very nice. The accommodation was lovely, the heated indoor pool was a big plus, the proximity to the beach was great, with only a 5 minute walk needed. I will say though, it's not the best beach in the world! If you have a small child, who wants to build sand castles, there are better beaches on the island. Also, be aware that the beach is tidal, and when the tide is in, you can't set one foot on the beach, so check tide times before visiting. We rocked up with bags full of beack kit, and had to turn around and walk back.

There is also a lovely soft play area for the children, and a very Pleasant cafe serving drinks and snacks, and all staff on site are very friendly and professional.

There are 2 or 3 eateries on the esplanade. One is up market, with a bar...the other is pure 'bottom of the barrel', with food to match, and the third looks pleasant. You will know which is which instantly.

The esplanade has great views, especially at sunset.

Some of the chalets in this resort have private, off street parking, and the rest have to park on the one way street directly outside, with limited entry / egress space as a result. Ours just happened to have the biggest, private off street parking of the lot, and with a toddler and all the accoutrements that come with a toddler, this made loading and unloading our vehicle easy, which is definitely not the case if parked on street.

Some chalets have hot tubs in the back garden, and some have them in the front. Ours was in the front. This was a bit wierd at first, but we soon realised that lack of privacy was not a big issue, because the shrubbery surrounding the hot tub, and the vehicle provided enough cover. I was in the tub, butt naked within 2 days!

My wife thinks that the 'dog friendly' chalets have back gardens with hot tubs.

On site entertainment is minimal. On Saturday evenings until 9:30pm at the cafe, you will find music. This wasn't a bother for us, since we wanted a peaceful holiday, not a Butlins experience!

So, to summarise, this was a very pleasant place to stay, could be top notch with a few small improvements. All I can suggest is that you do your homework first, and try to get a chalet with off street parking. Ours was number 17. Also, bring a mattress topper with you if you are coming before the refit in November. If your not a 'gym bunny', you could probably score this resort a solid 5 out of 5. There...

Had a lovely holiday, the area is nice with a short walk to the beach from the site. The lodge we stayed in was lovely, when we arrived there was butter, bread, sugar, tea, coffee and milk waiting which was a nice surprise (although there weren't any tablets to allow us to use the dishwasher)! The site had a swimming pool that we didn't use but looked nice, there is also a tennis court with access to racquets and balls which was a nice aspect of the site.

However the site wasn't perfect, we arrived to the island early so we had a drive around the area close to Colwell Bay, we then decided to try our luck at getting into the lodge early as we had items that needed putting in the fridge. We got to the site an hour early, so went to reception but there wasn't anyone inside so we waited in the car hoping we'd catch someone - Eventually it got to the check in time of 16:00 so I called a telephone number that was on the reception building; someone answered and let me know that the keys were actually waiting for me in a safe. This was annoying as we'd been sat waiting for an hour to be told the keys had been there the whole time. I understand that I could've called the number sooner but as the paperwork said 16:00 I thought I better not pester them before then. The other issue with this is that checking into the lodge was very impersonal, other than a phone call to 'check in' we hadn't interacted with anyone at the site, and we didn't until leaving the lodge the next morning when someone happened to be walking past so they asked if everything was okay. We also found an issue with plug sockets or lack thereof in out lodge, in our bedroom there was a bedside light on each side of the double bed however only one side was plugged in as there wasn't another socket. This meant that one of the lights was simply ornamental as it could never be plugged in. This was also the case in the kitchen with regards to the toaster, we had to move the toaster across the kitchen to be able to plug it in which was an annoyance. The only other issue we had was that our hot tub was a little bit dirty when we used it on the first night and then became very dirty over our stay which meant that we had to ask for it to be cleaned meaning the hot tub wasn't warm on our last night in the lodge which was disappointing. Saying this we've stayed at a few other Hoseasons sites with hot tubs and never had this issue before so this is obviously an uncommon occurrence.

Overall the holiday was lovely, it was our first visit to the Isle of Wight and Colwell Bay was a lovely area to use as our 'base' and even though we had issues with the site it wouldn't completely put us off coming back, although it wouldn't be our...