We book short get-aways for us and our 3 grandchildren every Christmas, we like to book something unusual to give them different life experiences. This year we found Hazel, perfect.
Sadly, she fell way short of the basics required for a restful and pleasant holiday.
Upon arrival we were greeted by Chris who wasn’t feeling too well but showed us to Hazel, gave us some basic instruction and told me where the guest manual was. As we had arrived before official check in time Hazel was still being cleaned but Chris let us drop our stuff so we could collect the kids.
By the time we got back the cleaner had left and it was dark, but the log stove was burning 👍
The first thing we noticed was the very humid, damp condition inside. As the week progressed we realised that, as long as we had the fire lit, water would stream down the uninsulated wooden sides and windows, so much so that water soaked into the cushions on the benches, the mattresses and pillows. I have never stayed or tried sleeping anywhere quite so wet, I can honestly say that if it wasn’t for the children being so excited we would have left immediately but decided to warm her up and hopefully dry her out. Big mistake. It became apparent (on the morning we were leaving) that apart from the fact that Hazel has no insulation we were also standing about 2 inches above 1000gallons of water as the bilge pumps had been turned off to save battery power (batteries totally knackered) because, as with all boats they let in water so we were never going to dry her out.
The kitchen: I’m not really sure what the lady was cleaning but it certainly wasn’t anything we touched or used. Every piece of cutlery had food deposits on them as if they had been lifted out of the sink without being cleaned and put back in the cutlery drawer. Most cupboards in the kitchen were filled with crap which meant our stuff had to be placed on the kitchen surfaces. The 3 pans I used had either food debris in them or mouldy boiled milk rims in them. Every cupboard was absolutely filthy inside, I would not like to guess how long it’s been since they were wiped out, in fact the whole of the inside of Hazel is very dirty and would benefit from a professional deep-clean.
The bathroom: The shower works OK as does the toilet and sink although the sink Is next to the external wall which slopes inward making it difficult to use. The bathroom is spacious albeit basic and not clean. The floor is just painted concrete and, as it’s a wet room style shower, water collects in a lot of areas and there was no mat to save getting wet feet until the room dried out. There is a mop but no bucket to squeeze the mop out.
Middle Bedroom: a small double room with the mattress wedged on all four sides and, as the mattress touches the outer wall, it not only suffers from general dampness but is very wet on that side. The mattress was made of a very lightweight thin sponge. Although we had taken duvets of our own, bottom sheets and pillows were provided. Two normal size adults will struggle to sleep in this room, and the mattress was very uncomfortable.

Back bedroom: this room has a bunk bed with a double on the bottom and single to the top. The bottom mattress, made of two layers of foam, touched the outside walls so again suffered from dampness. The bottom layer was covered in a plastic material which made the top layer of foam slip off the bottom one. This mattress was marginally better to sleep on than the other. There were slide out storage boxes under the bed but were not usable as water had collected in them. When we opened the window to air it out, slimy black mould that had collected in the groove at the bottom squirted out all over our white pillow cases. Obviously another area that the cleaning lady has missed for some time.
Living area: this area has three long bench type seats that double as beds although the foam is only a couple of feet wide so very difficult to get any quality sleep on them (we found this is the driest place to sleep). The wooden benches were soaking wet every morning. The log burning stove has plenty of wood supplied by Chris and hangs unattractively on hooks in dirty supermarket carrier-bags. The hearth is tiled but as Chris points out in his guest guide, the tiles have been smashed by a guest chopping logs. These need urgently replacing as they are very sharp and not safe. Again, water streams down the walls when the fire is lit but the room is very damp regardless of the fire being on or off.
Trips: I booked 2 trips with Chris. A short Tuesday and a longer trip Thursday. Sadly Chris had to cancel the Tuesday trip through I’ll health. The Thursday trip was the reason I gave this review a second star. Although it could have better planned we all enjoyed it dispute Manchesters finest weather for the return leg 🌧 ☔️
That said.
When I book somewhere to stay I only require a few basics:
1 - Be Clean
2 - Be able to get a good nights sleep
3 - Be warm and dry
Sadly, Hazel fails to deliver on all three counts.
Even tho this is linked to a charitable organisation and I appreciate that it’s not expensive, but they should and must get to a basic standard if they are taking peoples hard earned money.