Bears Court — Hotel in Cotswold District

Booked through air bnb, the property itself (unit 2) and its location in the Cotswolds are lovely. But when we arrived the property had not been fully cleaned before we checked in. Bedding and towels were clean but there had been no hoovering of the whole house or mopping of the tiled floors (the whole downstairs is tiled) as there were bits, stains, hair and dog hair on the tiled floors and carpet, crumbs and debris on the kitchen worktops, the fridge and microwave had not been wiped out so there was crumbs and debris in those, the bifold patio doors didn’t appear to have seen any glass cleaner for a while on the inside either, there were used period products and a razor in one of the bathroom bins and the same bathroom had not been cleaned - (the other 3 had but a couple of days prior as dust had already settled) and a dog poo still in the garden from a previous stay. The owner Maddy was very responsive arriving quickly to come see us after we called her but she didn’t turn up apologising like we expected - she was rude and defensive. She did eventually admit the place had not been properly cleaned and blamed her cleaner Kirsty. We were offered to move property but the hot tub would not be up to temperature until the next day so we declined this as we’d be at a wedding the next day, and instead she refunded the Airbnb cleaning fee of £100 to us however did not offer to clean the property as she said she had to pick her kids up in an hour (which just shows she knew it was a lot of cleaning that would be needed - it wasn’t just a 10 minute whip round with the hoover that was required) - so instead of spending our first hour in the hot tub like we had planned, she left us with a cloth and some disinfectant and we spent an hour hoovering the whole 3 bed 4 bath property and wiping down all the surfaces (bed side tables, dressing tables, nesting tables etc) and we cleaned the kitchen worktops and the inside of the fridge and even the high chair despite us being child free, to make us more comfortable staying there. I thought that experience was bad enough and that that would be the end of it but no when we got home after our two night stay she’d left ME a terrible air bnb review saying it was appalling the state WE had left the property in, that we’d contaminated the hot tub (somehow?), broken some glass, breached some check out instructions by not stripping the beds ourselves and that we were rude to her! Then she put in a claim on air bnb for us to pay her £100 due to her having to clean up our mess - but the only thing she’d have to do is change the beds and towels and clean the bathrooms which is all she’d done before we checked in but after the cleaning job we had done she’d probably get away with doing the bare minimum in time for the next guests this time. Air bnb of course sided with us (we had taken photos of the mess we had cleaned up) and they did not award her £100, after all we were the wrong people to be claiming £100 for mess from as we actually did her her a favour and cleaned the place for her, it’s the people that left that mess including not clearing up after their dog, that her or her cleaning staff did not clean up before we arrived, that she should’ve been claiming the fee from. Finally as lovely as having the hot tub was, my friend in particular has been itchy ever since using that hot tub, and it wasn’t until we saw some similar reviews saying they also were itchy or unwell from the hot tubs that we now realise it must be because of the hot tub not being clean either - from first appearances it looked ok but it didn’t smell of chlorine - well not as strongly as others I’ve been in. It is such a shame as normally I’d be leaving a fantastic review of somewhere like this (it’s a pricey place so your expectations are high) and I’ve actually never left a bad review of anywhere I’ve stayed before, but equally I’ve never turned up to somewhere that was dirty...

What a shame, this place had everything to be a lovely holiday home however, the lack of timely accurate information and poor customer service during a crisis let it down soo badly. Whilst the failure of the pump or blockage in a Thames Water pipe is something outside their control the flow of information was not. ||We were not told of problem prior to arrival at 1700, something they knew already because on telling them we had no water we were told a plumber was on route to solve the issue. Something we now believe wasn't true, just before 1800 2 x 5 litre bottles of water were delivered for 5 adults, 1 child, 1 baby and a dog. Not going to go far or last long. We asked for an update about 1830 received a text saying the plumber was getting a part to fix the problem making us believe it was a local issue with the properties but hard to believe due to the time on a Friday evening and normal opening hours of plumbers merchants and it would be fixed in an hour.||We later received another text update at 2200 that all residents got but the language was distinctively different telling us that the issue was with Thames Water infrastructure in the village causing a blockage. Offering everyone the opportunity to leave or stay and have refunds. This was late in evening too late to do anything with 2 small children already in bed. We had asked before this for an update and ended up going to the shop for more water. If this was a Thames water problem would they not have supplied water? Due to the length of time taking to resolve 'the blockage'.||The communication on Saturday morning was poor, only 1 text at 1000ish saying it would be fixed in a hour and nothing more despite calls and texts. After speaking to other residents we were informed it was nothing to do with Thames water and was a pump for the property's well at fault. At this point we decided to leave as it was starting to become a health hazard with no flushing toilets, having already started to pack up and spent hours looking for alternative accommodation. We booked and salvaged the rest of our holiday. A further update was sent by text at 1300 saying a pump had been sourced from Gloucestershire and was on its way but not fixed yet, however, it was too little too late. And no guarantees that it would ever be resolved, all the communication said it would be fixes within the hour no matter what day or time or what fault.||We went through the 3rd party booking agent and secured the partial refund through them not trusting of the owners/managers we had been dealing with. However there was no way to get the full refund due to lateness of the offer.||A little bit of honesty would be have much better as we were given 3 different reasons for having no water. This incident ruined the start of holiday after travelling 3 hours to get The Cotswolds. We gave up trying to get updates due to the rude tone and lack of clarity with the information that was blatantly not true with the story changing each time.||We would not recommend this place, don't book!! ||Stay was booked for Fri 09.05.25 to...

What a shame, this place had everything to be a lovely holiday home however, the lack of timely accurate information and poor customer service during a crisis let it down soo badly. Whilst the failure of the pump or blockage in a Thames Water pipe is something outside their control the flow of information was not.

We were not told of problem prior to arrival at 1700, something they knew already because on telling them we had no water we were told a plumber was on route to solve the issue. Something we now believe wasn't true, just before 1800 2 x 5 litre bottles of water were delivered for 5 adults, 1 child, 1 baby and a dog. Not going to go far or last long. We asked for an update about 1830 received a text saying the plumber was getting a part to fix the problem making us believe it was a local issue with the properties but hard to believe due to the time on a Friday evening and normal opening hours of plumbers merchants and it would be fixed in an hour.

We later received another text update at 2200 that all residents got but the language was distinctively different telling us that the issue was with Thames Water infrastructure in the village causing a blockage. Offering everyone the opportunity to leave or stay and have refunds. This was late in evening too late to do anything with 2 small children already in bed. We had asked before this for an update and ended up going to the shop for more water. If this was a Thames water problem would they not have supplied water? Due to the length of time taking to resolve 'the blockage'.

The communication on Saturday morning was poor, only 1 text at 1000ish saying it would be fixed in a hour and nothing more despite calls and texts. After speaking to other residents we were informed it was nothing to do with Thames water and was a pump for the property's well at fault. At this point we decided to leave as it was starting to become a health hazard with no flushing toilets, having already started to pack up and spent hours looking for alternative accommodation. We booked and salvaged the rest of our holiday. A further update was sent by text at 1300 saying a pump had been sourced from Gloucestershire and was on its way but not fixed yet, however, it was too little too late. And no guarantees that it would ever be resolved, all the communication said it would be fixes within the hour no matter what day or time or what fault.

We went through the 3rd party booking agent and secured the partial refund through them not trusting of the owners/managers we had been dealing with. However there was no way to get the full refund due to lateness of the offer.

A little bit of honesty would be have much better as we were given 3 different reasons for having no water. This incident ruined the start of holiday after travelling 3 hours to get The Cotswolds. We gave up trying to get updates due to the rude tone and lack of clarity with the information that was blatantly not true with the story changing each time.

We would not recommend this place, don't book!!

Stay was booked for Fri 09.05.25 to...