If you’re looking for a relaxing and stress free holiday with friendly, helpful and organised staff then Calvert Kielder is not for you. Calvert Kielder (booked with Hoseasons) is fake advertising at its finest. Two days before arriving, we received vague information from Hoseasons that SOME activities MAY be closed; with this I tried to call Hoseasons, several times, for more information to be faced with the message “due to a high volume of calls we will not be taking your call” and the phone cut off - helpful, right?! Due to the fact that everything seemed to be open, when looking at the websites, and not being able to contact Hoseasons to discuss our anxieties, we had no other choice than to set off for the holiday we had been promised. When arriving at the lodge at 5pm (the time you’re allowed to check in) we was greeted by a dirty lodge - please bare in mind we had been told the 5pm check-in was due to the fact that staff needed 20% extra time to clean, due to COVID. Dust, dead moths on the windowsills, food/ a dog chew and cigarette lighters behind the sofas... all things found upon arrival - COVID clean?! We were then told that the facilities (that are included in the price we paid and showing as still available on the website’s) were not available: bar was closed, restaurant was closed, swimming pool was closed. The fact that the restaurant was closed meant that we was unable to get any food for our children (a 9 month old and a 2 year old). We was told that for the take away service we needed to phone before 2pm - how is this acceptable when check-in is at 5pm? When researching everything before setting off we saw that the holiday park had a restaurant that would be open so we could feed the children as soon as we arrived then go to the lodge to unpack and settle the children... clearly, this plan was no more. With two tired and hungry children, we ventured to the next holiday park which had an open restaurant. Picture the scene: two small, tired and hungry children, four tired adults after travelling for just over 4 hours, getting out of the car to be hit by cold and windy weather when your two year old starts with “mummy, my belly is rumbling. Mummy, I really need my tea”. When arriving, we was told that we wasn’t allowed to eat there but we could wait outside for a takeaway to be brought to us. It was so cold that the children’s hands started to turn blue so half of our party had to take the children back to the lodge (screaming and crying because they’re hungry and haven’t been fed) while the other half waited in the cold for 50 minutes! The next morning I attempted to phone Hoseasons again; I was on hold for 40 minutes to hear the message “please hang up” then to hear the phone cut off. I called again to be greeted by the extremely rude and unhelpful Daniel. The basic message he had for me was that I was uneducated to not assume that everything was closed (according to the website for the holiday park, everything was open) and that I was wrong to believe Hoseasons should update customers through their website (they didn’t have to time to apply updates to their website). I’m sure false advertising is illegal or it that just me being uneducated?! He then went on to tell me that I was lying about not being able to reach Hoseasons on several occasions before going on holiday. I think Daniel needs to check Twitter and Facebook because a lot of people were commenting to say they had the same issue as me. Due to Daniel being so unhelpful, I went down to the reception at the holiday park (Calvert Kielder) to complain. Unbelievably, I was faced with staff that were just as unhelpful, unmotivated and seemed to lack any knowledge or even compassion for our situation. Things can only get better from here, right?! Wrong! The next morning, our little girl was playing in the living space at the lodge while we were getting breakfast ready. She commented that her ball was broken; when going to see what she meant, I found a number of toys (including the ball) had been gnawed through. I then looked into the space where we had left the children’s toys to find mouse droppings and wee everywhere... as you can imagine, I was horrified. When going to inspect the rest of the lodge we found mouse droppings: on the living room floor, all over the utility room, the carpet in the hallway and in our shoes in the hallway. After taking photos as evidence and obviously cleaning so the children were safe to move around, we went to speak to the staff at reception. Full of promises to help us and put things right, the only thing she did was send a pest exterminator 7 hours later. No offer of looking to see if we could be moved, no offer of a deep clean to ensure the lodge was safe for us... nothing! The pest exterminator came and said there was a lot of activity in the lodge and he set traps around the lodge (safe traps as to keep the children safe and in places the children couldn’t get) and laid pellets in the attic. He ensured us the problem would be resolved in the next four days... we was meant to be leaving in four days. We spoke to the member of staff that came with the pest exterminator to enquire about how they could help. Due to health and safety, we didn’t want to stay in the lodge with two small children with mice running around for the next four days. No one got back to us. Stressed and emotionally drained, we made our way to reception to tell them that we was packing our bags and leaving as the lodge wasn’t a safe or clean place for our children. The response we received: okay. You can come to reception to leave the keys or leave them in the key box if no one is here. You will have to call Hoseasons with your complaints... I can’t wait to speak to the helpful Daniel again! The fact that we paid £2575 for all of this is soul destroying!