Not properly cleaned. Very disappointing. Sykes Cottages are toothless when it comes to dealing with their letting owners. You are on your own when things go wrong. This was our second visit to Watermill Granary Barn, booked through Sykes Cottages who give it a 5-star rating, and cost over £1200.00 for the week. The place was really scuzzy and dirty on arrival. The dishwasher was not working properly because the rotors were blocked/unclean meaning that crockery and especially glasses had to be washed by us. There were old baked beans in the cutlery tray and the filter was full of old food waste. How unhygienic! The oven had not been cleaned at all, not even looked at - there were bits of encrusted food dangling through the wire racks and the oven trays had not been cleaned properly. Dead flies adorned the window sills and we got the feeling that the whole place had not been properly cleaned... an impression further reinforced by the loo bowl in the en-suite being shit-pocked and with a disgusting accumulation of muck and pubes behind the seat lid -- yuk! We complained immediately to the 'manager' about the dishwasher and oven who did his best to immediately clean them. The dishwasher, however, was never reliable at cleaning. We felt uncomfortable and unable to fully relax in other peoples' muck and were hugely disappointed - even being careful as to where we put things down - just not able to trust that anything was clean. And then to cap it all, on retiring, tired to bed, we pulled back the duvet to discover the bottom sheet to have bits of soil/leaves/muck on it. Had it been changed at all? We were too tired to do anything but brush it down and reluctantly went to bed. When I later told Steve, the manager/gardener, about the loo and sheet and showed him photos he was very embarrassed and apologetic – and worried about how the owners might react to his ‘oversight’ when they got back after the weekend. I spoke to the owners when I saw them on the Monday. So, we lived with the general distaste of uncleanliness until the Tuesday (4 days) when, on returning from a day out, we discovered the whole place had been cleaned to the high standard we had expected and had experienced last year. The owners had returned and having been appraised of our complaints had taken remedial action. It was very welcome, and they even left a couple of bunches of sweet peas from the garden - which was a nice touch. Needless to say, the BBQ was grubby (no wire brush to clean it) but the most worrying aspect about it was that the 4 control positions did not correspond to the gas output. When in the 'off' position the burners were still on. I suspect the knobs had been off and incorrectly replaced. Please note: I had reported my safety concerns about this BBQ last year. I again reported my concerns as to the safety of the BBQ to Steve the manager. However, I worked out how to carefully use it on the Sunday night and survived with eye-brows intact! It was replaced by the owner on Tuesday I am glad to say, though we didn't bbq again. Both the owners and Steve seem to be very nice. They were apologetic about the cleanliness/dishwasher issues, admitted it was sub-standard but characterised it as an aberration on Steve's behalf who was responsible for overseeing/cleaning. Aberration or not, the impact on us and our guests for the first few days was to spoil and mar the enjoyment of what is otherwise a lovely cottage/barn in an idyllic setting. Having paid a substantial fee, we did not expect to have to deal with these issues, nor to have the awkwardness of complaining. And having had half our holiday spoilt in the sub-standard accommodation I was hoping that the owners might offer some conciliatory financial compensation. A holiday is a much looked forward to event in our lives and one places certain expectations on it -- indeed having been to the same place last year, these expectations were not unrealistic! So, we felt very upset and let down (not to say dirty) through Friday afternoon to Tuesday the enjoyment of which was tarnished - literally. The owners might have offered some compensation. They did not – another disappointment. I didn't want to further upset the situation by bringing up the possibility of a proportional refund or potentially arguing with them at the time - indeed I resented having been put in the situation in the first place! Thereafter, the Sykes cottages customer services team, though ineffectually sympathetic, has been toothless in support of my complaint. When he nervously asked, I did say to Steve that I probably wouldn't publish a review on Tripadviser, but as I write of this final and unfair oversight, I am not so sure. I feel quite angry now! The state of the BBQ (dangerous in my opinion) and dish-washer (not reliable) point to a lack of attention and focus on providing service, value and comfort for their customers. We shall not be trusting to the fact that, as the owners aver, this was a one-off aberration in a normally good cleaning regime. Things have sadly slipped at Watermill Granary Barn and I wouldn’t want to risk feeling short changed and being disappointed again. We shall not be returning. PS: Having been approached by Sykes Cottages with our complaint (we provided photographic evidence), the owners have offered no compensation. Sykes Cottages has proved to be powerless/toothless in dealing with this. Their advice is to seek compensation through the courts! So, a general word of caution to all potential renters: You are on your own when things go wrong. Sykes fall back on their roll as ‘agent’ and claim to have no power or influence over their owners – indeed it seems they are reluctant to bite the hand that feed them. Even when presented with the evidence they say they are powerless to do anything. Sykes has asked for the feedback and I hope that it helps them and the owners re-attain the standards espoused. For me, the recording of this feedback leaves nothing but a bitter taste in my mouth. Thanks for the paltry £50 voucher (to be spent when booking another Sykes Cottage). It made me smile – but not in a good way. I will never book through Sykes Cottages again so it’s worthless to me. Oh, and when I called them to ask why my review (above) of Watermill Granary Barn had not been posted on Sykes website for the benefit of potential renters (as I had requested) they pointed to the use of my language (inflammatory) and said that they had chosen not to post it. I offered to rewrite, but was told I only had one chance. This editorial censorship stinks of bias…. So you can’t trust their review system either! Beware of Sykes. You have been warned.