Pengarreg Fawr

We stayed March 15th for one night. Our original booking was for the Cabin. Firstly the place is not easy to find, the postcode takes you to the farm lane ‘above the property’ we found the entrance by accident because of temporary traffic lights, it’s a forked dirt track off the main road before you come into the village. On the land you have the main farm house, 2 cottage’s joined to the side and then to the left you have ‘The Cabin’ and to the right what looks like a hobbit house. The Cabin was in a lovely spot, with views over the farm and fields, the cabin was all in all very clean and homely, bathroom was also clean, but……there was no bedding ( listing stated linen and towels would be provided) the hot tub was freezing and dirty, there was a layer of scum and larvae bugs in it 🤮and jets didn’t work. After inspecting the ‘Hobbit House’ (it was empty and clean) we rung the host ( who by the way is situated in a hotel in Aberystwyth, there is no host or care taker on site of the farm) the host apologised and give us an upgrade to the hobbit house. Prior to this no message of key fob details were sent so we had to ring to get access to the key. The Hobbit house was lovely and a much bigger cabin, it wasn’t 100%, all in all it was clean but it could do with an overall because there were a few spiders, and webs on the upper half of the cabin. There were spiders behind the radiators so it could do with a good once over. Well stocked kitchen, and it was all clean, this one had linen on the beds and towels. The main part of the cabin was lovely and warm but the middle section(kids beds) and bathroom were freezing. The Hobbit House looked a little rushed in its assembly because in some places the walls didn’t meet the roof properly leaving gaps hence the cold and spiders, and there was a door leading outside from the bathroom which had a massive gap. Hot tub was much warmer and you could smell the chlorine, it wasn’t 100% it had a few leaves at the bottom and the water was very low, below the jets. We were ok with everything as a whole, it was only for 1 night. The pub in the village is closed, online it states it’s open so we went into Aberystwyth for food. On our return there was a couple looking around the Hobbit House and they didn’t look happy. They drove off after a bit and after being on the phone, I’m assuming they rung the host, we thought that the host had put us in the Hobbit House and didn’t realise they had a booking in place. On inspection of trying to book ‘The Hobbit House’ we couldn’t find it anywhere on the web, absolutely nothing is listed on it, so we investigated the hosts themselves. Our discovery was that they have a habit of double booking their properties and this seems to happen A LOT!! from what we’ve read (reviews with the cabins) they’ve only listed the small cabin and its ’pot Luck’ which one you get (obviously the couple must have had the same complaints about the smaller cabin as us and they didn’t have any other option but to stay or go home, they went home). Later that night a 3rd party turned up around 8.30pm so overall they had overbooked ‘the cabin’ with 3 bookings for that same night. I would genuinely like to stay at the Hobbit House again (bring my own duster) but I wouldn’t like to take the chance of being double booked and not being able to book the ‘actual’ Hobbit house, if it was 100% certain you could and would be staying in the hobbit house I’d book again, but our experience and the reviews don’t make me confident enough to do any further bookings.

We recently stayed at Pengarreg Fawr Farmhouse as a group of 10, and while the property has some great features, unfortunately our overall experience fell short of expectations. On the positive side, the house itself is very spacious and well-suited for larger groups. The hot tub is a great size and could be a fantastic addition to the stay when properly maintained. Unfortunately, the negatives outweighed the positives-to begin with, the location was difficult to find – the postcode provided took us to the wrong place, and we only found the property by chance after driving around for some time. The outdoor area, particularly around the hot tub, was littered with a glass bottle, empty tin can, bottle tops and even screws – posing a serious safety hazard, especially as we were travelling with a 19-month-old child. Thankfully, we spotted the debris in time to prevent any injury. Inside, the TV setup was worrying – the stand was balanced on the very edge of the cabinet, making it extremely unstable and a potential danger to young children. The garden furniture was dirty, covered in debris and algae, and not in a usable condition. There were also noticeable stains on two of the beds (we have photographic evidence), a broken window, a faulty tap, and a broken ironing board – which left us having to iron on the dining table. With a group of 10 people staying for two nights, there was also a lack of basic amenities like cutlery. We had to go out and purchase more ourselves, which was frustrating and unexpected. It’s a real shame, as the property has so much potential, but unfortunately, we wouldn’t choose to return or recommend it in its current state.

DO NOT BOOK! We have been let down on the day of arrival paying in full! We were 3 hours into our travel to the place when we were told by the company we booked with that they ‘never got the confirmation or any record of the booking even though we did!