Sleeps 12 — Hotel in Great Britain

Lovely on the surface, but terrible customer service! We booked a stay at Ted's Place for 11 people for the weekend.

When we arrived, we found a team of builders leaving, and it transpired we were the first people staying at this property. With the rushed finish to the work, we found a number of issues in the property, including dangerous structure, hot-tub/swim-spa not as advertised, odd layout of the house.

The swim-spa was cold with the lid left off when we arrived. The swim-spa / hot-tub was one of the main factors for booking Ted's Place as it was advertised under the hot-tub section on the site. They sent someone out to "fix the issue" and set it to heat up. Unfortunately due to the size, it was not warm enough to use until our last morning, when half our party had already left. When we spoke about our disappointment, we were dismissed as not understanding that a swim spa is for resistance swimming not for use as a hot tub, and that no compensation would be available for the lower temperature. Obviously we were very disappointed and felt misled by Sleeps 12. With 11 people attending we assumed it would be clear we wanted to use the spa as a hot tub, not for resistance swimming!

Structural issues were found throughout the property. The floor of the balcony was not secured, with loose glass panels and quite a drop below. Electrical issues in the kitchen meant having the oven and hob on at the same time resulted in tripped fuses and no lighting. The induction hob itself did not work consistently, with majority of the pans not compatible. The bathroom on the top floor didn't seem finished, with the floor in the shower completely loose and wobbly. Small things like no soap in the bathroom or places to hang towels seems insignificant, but should be expected when spending money on a stay.

The layout of the house itself seemed odd, with the only shower on the middle floor being through one of the bedrooms. And a general lack of bathrooms led to queues in the morning!

Could have been a lovely stay, but really let down by the...

I forgot to post a review of this company back at the time. We had booked a venue in England with them in 2019 due for summer 2020. When the covid lockdown hit, this triggered force majeure and entitled us to a refund of the deposit and a cancellation of the reservation without penalty (a view that was confirmed by the government in general later in 2020). Having contacted Sleeps12 we proposed a reschedule of our reservation to a point 1 year out into the future in place of a refund/cancellation, but they declined - stating that the owner was pulling their property from the platform so no reschedule was possible. Further, that under the terms of the "contract" signed when the reservation/deposit was made, we had no recourse and tough luck, we still were required to keep the reservation and pay them in full even if we couldn't legally occupy the rental unit thanks to government policy. They demanded we pay them in full for the reservation in order to "preserve" our ability to possibly receive a refund after the date of the reservation passed, a naked display of trying to save their own skins due to liquidity issues revolving around the lockdown. Sleeps12 and the rental property owner fought us every step of the way and government intervention was required before they finally issued the refund of our deposit and cancellation of our reservation without penalty, per the terms of the "contract" they make you sign when booking. We also received abusive and upsetting communications from the property owner telling us among other things that they "need to keep your deposit as our financial situation is much worse than yours." This is not to mention Sleeps12 apparently made (per emails we received) every single one of their staff save one person named Jessica redundant during the lockdown. I would rather gnaw my own arm off than ever do business with this company again. I'm astounded they survived...

Sadly I would not recommend either this company, or the property Ridgeview in Somerset. The property itself, although beautiful, was marketed as "secluded" and like being in a "world of your own". Apparently perfect for hen weekends, group gatherings and celebrations. This was not the case- as you can see the neighbours are in very close proximity (pictures of which are not shown on the website). We received a noise complaint the first night due to talking too loudly (no music or silly screaming), which we acted on immediately and ensured it didn't happen again the whole weekend. It was the hottest day of the year so windows were open on the property. The house sleeps 18 in total, we were a party of 15 and they knew it was a hen party. The owner decided to retain £250 of our security deposit so he could "buy his neighbours a present". Would also like to add that 2 men came onto the property, unannounced, to fix the hot-tub that broke the day before. One of the party was getting changed at the time, and they appeared outside her open bedroom door which led onto the pool area- highly unprofessional, but the owner and sleeps 12 couldn't care less about this. My issue with sleeps 12 is that they provided me with different terms and conditions on my booking, to those on their website. My terms and conditions did not mention a £250 deduction if the house rules are broken- something sleeps 12 admit, but said that due to the terms being available somewhere on their website, they could still retain that money, and as they already have your money there is nothing you can do. Check out trust pilot for more reviews regarding deposits and mis-leading property...