We had a lovely weekend at Little Barn catching up with friends we hadn't seen for a year. The property was open, spacious and airy with lots of natural light. It has a nice rural feel about it despite being very close to Bristol. We used the very handy Park and Ride just around the corner. The Stockwood Open Space nature reserve walk is only a hundred metres the other way although care must be taken as road narrow and quite busy. The property itself is a pretty converted stone barn. We liked the large open layout. It was very easy to park and unload.
We felt that there were one or two 'snags' which could be easily rectified but gave a slightly unfinished/worn feel to the conversion. For us the main ones were broken/loose paving slabs to enter the barn that made it quite hazardous particularly if carrying anything. There were loose wires hanging down outside the building which were easy to catch yourself on (which my husband did). There was also one in the bathroom. The back door had a cat flat taped up which just looked a bit scruffy.
Depending on people's personal requirements/preferences we felt the bedroom layout was odd for anything other than a couple. There is a single bedroom which is ensuite but then the second double bed is on an open mezzanine directly above (effectively a double bunk bed). Unless you know the other couple really well there's no privacy. It might work for teenage children but the spiral staircase up is too risky for younger children or the elderly. The write-up says it's suitable for children only but when we asked the owner directly on arrival she said it was fine for adults too. Since we were 2 middle-aged couples our friends slept on the sofa bed in the lounge which was ok but not ideal. They had to come through our bedroom to use the loo and there were no curtains or blinds on back door or velux so very bright at sunrise.
For our purposes we would have needed a draining board for washing up as water went directly on the floor from the rack. As we self-catered a couple of larger pans would have been useful and more tea towels but if you eat out this wouldn't have been a problem.
In the write-up the patio is described as being "yours" but in reality there is no physical boundary at all. We love dogs and have two lively ones of our own but we were surprised that the owner's dogs were allowed to run around everywhere near the barn and continually tried to come in when we were cooking which prevented us from eating outside or keeping the patio door open even though the weather was amazing. We also had to keep the windows closed on two very hot days as the owner lit a bonfire and fed it for 48 hours which shows lack of consideration? We were rather surprised at the lack of awareness. This was disappointing and marred the end of our visit more than any of the slight snags.
We did have a lovely weekend but just wanted to be honest in our review for people who book in future. We are not negative or tricky people and hope our comments are constructive.
To finish on a positive note... the telly and Wi-fi were fab, our little girl loved the slide and we arrived to a bottle of prosecco!