Reviewed by
Melanie
21st August 2026
This property is not as advertised and definitely not 5 star quality. The photos are not recent and many things are different: outside no table and one sofa missing, cupboard door missing in kitchen, sofa missing in downstairs bedroom. As a family, we were so disappointed having spent good money on our annual holiday. When booking, I noticed theRead more review from Gill on 29th August 2025 and assumed that as follow reviews did not mention anything, that 'the house overall badly needs some serious TLC, deep cleaning and refurbishment', had been dealt with one year on!!! What a mistake.
The downstairs en suite bathroom, which my Mum was using was disgusting, dirt, grime, black mold from years of neglect. The caretaker was sent in the next morning to deal with it and he made an effort and a lot of excuses and the finished job, my Mum put up with. It still wasn't clean but apparently that would require dismantling??? Yes, the location is beautiful and we made good use of the facilities but we wouldn't return and we wouldn't recommend it to family or friends. I had considered hiring Bodweni Hall for my special birthday but not any more.
There are mice in the house, it happens but the droppings appear quite quickly, so it should have been noticed and dealt with, light bulbs were missing on arrival, my husband made the shoe store usable, the door handle was loose on bedroom 2 when we arrived, bedroom 1 has no socket for the lamp on the side table, the bins were at the front door and the commercial bins in the centre of the estate became overflowing half way through our stay, so the doors and windows could not be left open fully due to the flies and eating outside became impossible, they even pestered us in the jacuzzi. Bins should go to the other side of the estate by the locked gates and who has an 80 litre metal bin in the kitchen, especially now most things are recycled? This can't be seen in the photo. We took all the bins including this beast to the back of the house. The house for 8 only has 5 place mats and 6 glasses if you aren't drinking wine, champagne or beer, five members of our family don't drink. Everything is mismatch and the dishes are stored in a cupboard with no door, so the flies were happy. Everything needed to be moved around and pre-washed. Cupboards also don't have backs on them, so easy access for the mice! There is no available storage for food, except the top of the dishwasher, a table and one small cupboard high up, so once we realized there were mice present, we stored everything in the oven and the fridge.
The house is advertised as having a downstairs bedroom and bathroom, correct but this is misleading, as this is not easy access for anyone with mobility issues. There is a step into the living room from the utility room and back door and another very deep step into the bedroom area and no handles anywhere. My Mum really struggled with these steps. We planned on bringing her around on her scooter once we realized the kitchen and dining room were upstairs, after booking (I should have noticed in the write up) but it's pointless being listed with these facilities, as they are not suitable for people with mobility issues. If you are staying with young children, please note, there is no stair gate at the top of the stairs, which are steep and at the bottom it is useless, as the banister is country fence style with a gap big enough for an adult.
Although there are three bathrooms, you can only shower one at time, there isn't enough pressure, so my daughter's partner stood in the upstairs shower for quite some time, while two of us showered downstairs unaware. The shower heads are also pathetic. The grout in all the bathrooms is black and moldy and don't look behind the toilets or sinks!
The TVs are pretty useless. It's impossible to connect the dining room and living room TVs to anything, the downstairs bedroom one does but the sofa has gone. The signal is touch and go in the house and around the site. The best signal we got was at the bottom of the site by the side of the river. Wifi is touch and go!
The tiled floors are in need of a steam clean throughout and in the downstairs bathroom, the floor grout has come away excessively. The laminate floor in parts is coming away and a trip hazard. The workmanship throughout is poor, the edging not fitted properly and magnolia paint on skirting boards coming down the stairs because masking tape was not applied. There are cobwebs and spiders everywhere and as the caretaker said 'Yes, they can return quickly' but on the day you arrive, there shouldn't be any if the cleaners have had 7 hours to clean the property, arrival time is 5pm, which is late compared to other rental properties we have stayed in. Mirrors and shower doors were also smudged, a cordless window vacuum would resolve this.
When I was actually looking for our holiday, I went to the Bodweni Hall and House website and thus missed the fact that there are more than two properties on this estate. It is mentioned on the holidaycottages.co.uk website but I missed it. There are now five, accommodating altogether 62 people, not including babies. The final one was being renovated during our stay, so there were builders on site throughout and working out of hours to finish the job and one corner of the estate was a building site. We were fortunate in that not all the properties were occupied during our stay, so it wasn't over busy but I am certain that with full occupancy, the facilities would be fewer and the car park would be full. The families in the other properties during our stay were lovely but some from the Hall parked their cars in front of our house, so the view from the living room and downstairs bedroom was of a car park, not the lake or the land. There was a sign 'No Parking' but it was ignored and not enforced. Other properties that we have stayed at over the years have had marked spaces and strict rules. I don't go on holiday to discuss house rules with other holiday makers.
The grounds are looked after but there are no extras...no flowering plants in boarders by the house or anywhere in the grounds, we had two plastic pots by the front door with soil and self seeded saplings and another larger one with a laurel and weeds??? No hanging baskets, no colour. Trees and grass. Oh and Bodweni Coach House has artificial grass??? Also, part way through our stay we noticed a car parked in the cows field alongside the main part of the estate and the occupants by the river. My husband always concerned for the safety of our daughter and myself, asked them why they were on the land and they told him that they had fishing rights. Obviously, if this was true, they would have used the car park. The car was clearly visible but no one on site dealt with them. Something to be aware of if you are allowing your children to roam about outside on their own!
Positives: the weather was glorious, a mini heat wave and so we were outside most of the time and thus distracted from the failings of the house. The beds were comfortable and clean. All zip and link would have been even better, my husband slipped down the gap in ours, which was made up as a double. Towels were clean and adequate provided. The house is surface cleaned, meaning toilets and sinks were clean, the fridge and oven were clean, surfaces were clean. Lake and river were lovely, although one pedal boat needed maintenance, as it only went in circles, so we avoided it. There is a children's playground with a trampoline, so this is a plus if you are staying with children. The owner responded quickly to my complaints and sent the caretaker over on the Saturday morning, which was efficient but shouldn't have been necessary. The 'Welcome Basket' was a nice touch and something other reviewers comment on as though it was rare and special but in my opinion, I could have done without it and been exceptionally happy if the house had been the five star quality that it was advertised as being. The final positive is that we had our lovely not requiring TLC, deep cleaning and refurbishing homes to return to. I do hope things are resolved so future holiday makers can make the memories here, that they anticipate. Hide